Monday’s Jamaica Race Drivers Club (JRDC) Total Lubricants Independence of Speed at Dover Raceway, St Ann, is expected to be filled with action.
“It’s going to be a full, jam-packed day of Jamaica 55 racing and we just encourage everyone to come out on Monday to enjoy the racing,” Monqiue Gibbs, president of JRDC, said
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The event will open at 7:00 am with the 14-race programme starting at 10:30 am.
“This meet will be one of intense competition,” she said.
Leading the excitement is a raft of young guns now beginning with current champion Fraser McConnell, who has moved into the class of his former go-karting rival Williams Myers. Colin Daley Jr and Modified Production class 1 champion Nicholas Barnes will add to the action.
With Doug Gore and David Summerbell Jr’s crash at JamWest Speedway in Westmoreland in May where both drivers’ cars were destroyed, it was thought that Kyle Gregg would have the rest of the season to himself in his Radical RXC. However, Gore has ordered a new car which should arrive in 2018, Summerbell Jr has purchased and secured a Radical SR8.
“Given my responsibilities to my sponsors, I wanted to finish out the season. I miss the Evolution but the Radical is a real race car,” Summerbell Jr told Auto.
Fans of Summerbell will recognise that the combination of driver and car is a throwback to his domination behind the wheel of his single-seater racer.
However, he admitted that the Radical is a stop-gap as it’s not legal to compete in the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship.
“This car has paddle-shifters, which is my first time using them. Plus it has no power steering,” he laughed.
For Gregg, he welcomes the challenge, congratulating Summerbell Jr for the purchase and getting it to Jamaica in time for Monday. He said he has not done anything significant to his Radical.
“The car is ready. Not much has changed for this race meet. David’s Radical is a different spec to mine as his car is 300ccs less, but 500 pounds lighter, so it should be a very interesting race meet as he’s been testing. David will be much more reliable with the Radical and the championship will definitely be decided at the last meet of the year,” said Gregg.
On a more sombre note, the motor sport fraternity will use Independence of Speed to honour one of their fallen, biker Andre Rickards, who was fatally shot on Friday, July 7. All the motorcycle races for the day have been named in his memory.
