A new era in Barbadian motorsport is coming.
That’s because the Barbados Association of Dragsters and Drifters (BADD) has announced that it will be hosting the inaugural Caribbean Motor Racing Festival from November 28 to December 1.
This was revealed at a press conference yesterday held at the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) and hosted by president of BADD, Robert Bishop.
Also on hand yesterday were Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment Joy Adamson, Kamal Springer of BTMI, marketing officer of the Barbados Public Workers’ Cooperative Credit Union, (BPWCCU) Nicole Wiltshire, and Government’s tourism and sports consultant, former Olympian Stevon Roberts.
Bishop noted that drag racing had grown by leaps and bounds in Barbados over the last few years.
This growth is evident in that they are hoping to give the winner of the overall competition at least
US$15 000, and US$10 000 to the fastest car.
“We are now growing to the extent where we are travelling over to different islands, competing and being very successful. With St Vincent being the first place we travelled to, we came second. We travelled to Grenada the following couple of months and would have won the actual event, but we ran out of time. So, it has become really impressive when it comes to our showings overseas,” Bishop said.
He said the festival will have various motorsport disciplines represented. The action starts at Bushy Park, St Philip, with a sound-off to determine who has the best sounding audio equipment, which will involve competitors from St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Circuit racing will be the following day, where competitors from across the region will compete in drifting, time-attack and circuit racing at Bushy Park.
The last two days of the competition will be drag racing as BADD has been permitted to close off The Belle, St Michael stretch between the Norman Niles Roundabout and the Clyde Walcott Roundabout for some quarter-mile side-by-side action.
The first day will be preliminaries and qualifiers, and the last day will be the finals. The president is expecting about 900 people to make the trip from overseas to Barbados for the event.
“The Bajans that have travelled abroad, some of them say that they’re definitely looking at the logistics to get the cars here. Two of them have confirmed so far to bring their cars, and they’re some pretty quick cars.
“The interesting thing about it is that they have been having access to an actual prepared track, which is very important in getting cars to go down very quickly. We don’t have a home here as yet, so it is going to be very challenging for everyone. This means we will be on the same level because we are actually having this event on a regular road, so there’s no advantage of having a prepared track.
“So, we’re very excited to have the international guys that have been, obviously, accustomed to really good tracks, and they’re very excited to come and join us in this event.”
Representing the event sponsor was Nicole Wiltshire, who noted that motorsport events bring families and communities together, and that is exactly what the BPWCCU is all about.
“At the credit union, that’s what we’re all about – bringing communities together, empowering individuals. I’m just so happy to see that we’re embracing this sport and making it more, I don’t want to say accessible, but it’s levelling up basically, and the credit union is very happy to be a part of that,” she said.
Adamson also pledged the support of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment.
“We will put our efforts behind it so that we will make this a world-class event and bring international players to Barbados. We are here at BTMI. I’m sure that Kamal (Springer) will attest to the fact that this is a tourism event that we can surely market and make some money for Barbados.
“So I am anticipating the historic event when the Christmas tree lights come on, when the action begins, when you’ll be seeing who has the fastest time, the fastest turnover, the fastest burnout, the fastest cold shot, who can pedal it, and we look forward to seeing drivers to the line.” (SW)
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