Brian Carless, Gleaner Writer
Doug 'Hollywood' Gore (right) and Peter 'Bull' Thompson hold off two challengers in the rain at last year's Easter Monday race meet at Dover, St Ann. - photos by Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
It's here again, the annual Labour Day weekend Dover race meet, dubbed, 'The Caribbean Invasion', the first round of the 2008 Caribbean Circuit Racing Championship. Cable and Wireless Jamaica, the title sponsor of the event, and the Jamaica Race Drivers Club will host drivers from Guyana, Barbados, St Marteen and The Cayman Islands at Dover Raceway, St Ann on May 24 and 25.
The Cable and Wireless Broadband, 'Caribbean Invasion', was officially launched at a ceremony at the Liguanea Club in new Kingston. Present were the who's-who of local motorsports and many, many more.
Caribbean Invasion will see Jamaica's own Doug 'Hollywood' Gore, GTS-class champion, in his Mitsubishi Evolution V, defending his championship title in what is anticipated to be one of his most challenging ordeals yet. We are expecting Mark Maloney of Barbados in his Mazda RX3 and Andrew King from Guyana in his Mazda RX7 to be coming to our shores to settle scores.
action filled
Over 70 drivers are expected to be competing over the two days of action-filled events. We will also be seeing the long awaited return of the two-wheel speed demons to the Dover Raceway - expect the unexpected from the fearless Motorcycle pilots.
Lisa Bowman-Lee, IP45 Champion, in her reliable race-winning Integra, will be there to show the guys that "you have to first finish to finish first". David Summerbell will debut his awesome new Evolution VIII. Mathew Gore, with new found experience from training with his new international race team, Team 48, in the British Touring Car Championship, will be there proving his true grit in "winning Gore-form". The brothers - Tony Bayley in his 'Tsunami', the first ever to be seen in Jamaica, a 550hp two-door Mitsubishi Evolution, and Robert Bayley in his mean Subaru Impreza racing machine - will also be taking to the Dover proving grounds. An interesting development will see Dean 'The Matador' Shaw and Dieter 'The Butcher' Wilson, relative newcomers to the Dover Raceway, but by no means newcomers to local motorsports. Shaw is best known for his undefeated "eight-second" drag racing Camaro. Shaw and Wilson will be making the crossover to circuit racing each in a Pro Challenge truck powered by a 1400cc Kawasaki motorcycle engine, the first ever of its type to run in Jamaica.
The Labour Day Caribbean Invasion race meet seems to be building up to be the most exciting Dover event yet to be seen. With the exception of the IP45-class, two seconds have been dropped across all classes, that is, IP39 will now be IP37; IP35 will now be IP33, and this in essence means that the classes will now be effectively faster. One interesting class to watch will be IP45, the "feeder class", in which newcomers, after being trained on the track, will be able to compete with their everyday streetcar.
challenges
Look for Brian Foster, IP45 Champion, who will now step up to compete in the IP37-class challenging reigning IP39 champion, now IP37, Rohan Clarke. Look for another ever-winning champion, Guy Fraser (IP29), who will now have to press a little harder in his new classification under IP27.
Word of a MoBay/Kingston rivalry exists, but if this is so, the overseas contingent has sent word that it intends to take all the Jamaican prizes home with them, and wipe the Jamaica competition out of the record books. Let us see whether the brothers from Kingston with their blue-eyed champ and the movieland drivers from Montego Bay can put their differences aside and ensure that we keep our heads high on the home court. May 25 will be the true test of sportsmanship as we play.
