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Saturday Practice
Its another
bright and hot day. The best times by the drivers
present are in the 57-sec bracket, slow by normal
standards. My car has a brand new set of Goodyear
Eagle GA tyres, courtesy ACL once again. Jimmy has
joined Robin and myself as a beneficiary of
Goodyears and his Bel Ray car now sports their
logo. I take the car out for four laps and manage
high 56-sec times, but these are easily a second
off what I would like. The conditions are obviously
not ideal. The suspension settings have once again
been done by Motor Works, however its gone back to
the neutral-to-understeer characteristics I'd had
before, so it needs some tweaking. Rudder is still
in holiday mode (he's been on vacation) and is not
present, so I decide to wait till race day to do
the adjustments. Late in the day when its a bit
cooler I go out with Tanko. I'm able to pass him
and open a gap with a best time of 55.7 sec, more
in line with what I would want... the cooler
temperature has improved everyone's times. Several
drivers have done engine work on their cars,
including Jimmy who has had his rebuilt but finds a
persistent sputtering going through top corner
which won't go away. Some of the cars now also have
straight-through exhaust pipes with no barrel. The
idea is to make a bit more noise and my car
certainly does, but there's no performance
gain.
Race Day
The day
starts off bright and clear. We have a new Race
Director for this round - Mr. Vishnu Mungalsingh.
He's taken a refreshingly professional approach,
providing the drivers with printouts of the race
grid positions and generally putting into place
some much needed structure. Amazingly, a few of the
Carib drivers are not present which has Speed
Promotions scrambling to fill their seats... quite
unbelievable. We finally end up with Roger
Sooknarine taking over the Caribbean Sound Basin
car and and Vinod Maraj in the General Diesel
machine. Although both are experienced drivers,
this will be their first Carib Stock Car event.
Jason Fletcher has not made it in from Grenada,
leaving the Radio 95.1 car out for the first
race.
Race 1
I've pulled
thirteenth spot for the first race. The new race
director has decided to set the grid up in two
rows. Some of us have wanted this from day one. It
should help get the cars through the first few
corners with less chance of contact. Of course, the
rear of the grid is now pretty far back, but
reversing it for the second race will even things
out. Because the 95.1 car doesn't start, my grid
position gets adjusted to the outside of the sixth
row, directly behind Gary in the Speedway car, but
its still seems far back from the front. I make an
OK start... Tanko gets a flyer. I start out
sticking to the outside, but again find an opening
leading to the inside halfway up to the first
corner. As we get onto the brakes, I slot in
directly behind Silbourne and follow him and a
bunch of others round the inside of top corner and
into Da Costa Jones. Going through the righthander
on the back of the circuit with cars all around me,
I feel a bump in the rear. Its Venosh in the Max
Meyer car prodding me on. At this point a push like
that can only help, but I keep him in mind as we
head towards the hairpin. With cars still all
around me I decide to take an inside approach to
this 180-degree turn, slowing the car enough to get
the traction I'll need to hold a tight line and not
open the door for anyone to come inside me. At the
same time I'm concerned about Venosh and
justifiably so, because as I turn into the corner
my mirror shows him heading straight into me as he
futilely attempts to get his car back under
control. My car gets slightly crossed-up as I feel
the impact on my right rear door and, as has
happened in the past, I immediately get furious and
shake a fist at him. More unnecessary bouncing. I
put it behind me and continue to focus on the race.
As we head down the straight, something strange is
happening with the group of cars ahead of me. I see
what appears to be Ravi and David having a dueling
match in the middle of a bunch of others. They bang
into one another and Ravi goes off onto the grass
on the left, then comes back into David. Cars are
at very strange angles for a straightaway. I head
towards the inside to avoid this madness and manage
to get past a few cars. When I get back to top
corner and Da Costa Jones I see the damaged Rocket
and Bel Ray cars on the side of the road. Neither
has made it through the first lap. Much of the next
few laps is a blur. I eventually make it to third
place behind Gary and catch him going around the
righthander at the back of the circuit. Not wanting
to lose momentum, I move to the outside on his left
as we head towards the fast lefthander, flat out in
third and shifting up to fourth. I wonder just for
a fraction of a second whether I should back off or
keep my foot in it and decide to do the latter.
Gary does a great job and we each hold our line,
giving one another just enough room and we go
through the bend side by side... great stuff. He's
on the inside for the hairpin, the better side in a
situation like this, and we maintain our positions
for another lap. As we go by the start line the
next time around, I see a blackboard with number 38
- a car is being black-flagged. Gary sees it too
but backs off momentarily and I take advantage of
this to get past him as we head to top corner. Its
just Tanko now. I've had such an eventful but
haphazard race thus far, I now find that I have to
talk to myself to focus on driving as fast as
possible without error if I am to catch him.
Passing will be another problem. Slowly, over the
next several laps I reel him in. One or two laps
from the end I get by and open a small lead till
the flag drops. I've won my third Carib Stock Car
race, but I'll remember it as the hardest I've had
to drive in the series thus far.
Race 2
I'm in grid
position three, inside the second row with the Max
Meyer car of Venosh directly ahead. I know exactly
where I intend to go at the flag once I can get a
good start - to the inside on his right. Ravi is
alongside him on the front row, so although it
almost seems a sure thing, I know better. While the
cars are being gridded I see Jimmy's Bel Ray car
leave the pits to join us. He's managed to get it
going again after the first race damage, albeit
without part of the front. I get a good start and
move to the inside as planned. Venosh is
experienced enough to know that I'd try this and
moves to close the door but I'm already there. We
rub fenders and doors almost all the way to top
corner by which time I've managed to clear him. At
the turn I'm on the inside with Ravi to my left.
With anyone else that would be it but not Ravi. He
holds a line wide enough to give me room and simply
drives around me... amazing. Just before race
start, a mild shower of rain has wet the western
half of the track, so I brake gingerly on
approaching the hairpin. Ahead of me Ravi does the
first of many demonstrations of his unique
technique to get around the hairpin, using an
extremely wide but fast line all the way around.
Halfway up the straight its dry again. I get
alongside him at top corner and once again he holds
a wide line and drives around me. I can see just
how well his car is handling with a bit of
oversteer all the way through the turn, his driving
skill taking full advantage of it. Each lap as we
move from dry to wet surface I have to be careful,
especially under braking for the hairpin, then with
the turn into the apex followed by the earliest
possible application of power to make the most of
the following straight. One lap I almost get him on
entry to top corner but he shuts the door on me and
I hit the curb as the car goes slightly sideways.
This goes on for several laps until I eventually
get by on the inside at the end of the straight. A
lap or two later as I glance in the mirror going
through the hairpin I see that he's overcooked it a
bit and goes sideways and over the curb,
half-spinning his Texaco Havoline car. I breathe a
sigh of relief. The immediate pressure is gone... I
can now drive less defensively and I open my lead
to the finish. Its now four in the books for me.
Jimmy somehow manages to bring the battered Bel Ray
car in third behind Ravi.
Post Mortem
I've
managed to win both races and can still hardly
believe it. Until you have to do it, you don't
appreciate how difficult it is to move through from
near the back of the pack and then get past the
faster cars up front, all in twelve laps. Having a
decisive race director in Vishnu Mungalsingh has
also been a needed change. At least two drivers are
handed warning letters and one is penalised by
having to miss the next event. The first five or
six cars are timed during the races so we now have
an official lap record of 55.49 seconds which I'm
happy to say goes to me and the Carib car. I've
managed to elevate my position to a tie with Gary
for second place in the series with two more rounds
to go. Tanko is still eleven points clear.
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