Classy Summerbell steals show at Dover

Glenroy Sinclair, Assignment Coordinator

Jamaica's David Summerbell and Peter 'Zoom Zoom' Rae turned in a classy performance on Monday at the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship (CMRC), held at the Dover Raceway, St Ann.

Summerbell, who qualified on pole with a lap time of 1:20.872 seconds, won all three CMRC races. He also won a Modified Production Class-Three race and finished second in the thrilling, seven-lap final race.

"It was a great race meet for me," said Summerbell, who attributed his success to his mechanic and support team, who prepared his Total-sponsored Mitsubishi Evolution Mazda.

The victories kept Summerbell at the top of the roost.

"Summerbell has assumed the lead in the Four-Wheel Drive class, on 30 points, ahead of Guyana's Kevin Jeffries, 22 points, and Jamaica's Doug Gore on eight," president of the Jamaica Race Drivers Club (JRDC), Hilary Jardine, told The Gleaner on Tuesday.

Equipped with an engine built by the veteran Peter Moodie, Rae, in his yellow-painted RX7 Mazda, was consistent enough to amass enough points and improve his chances of winning his first CMRC title.

"Though some of the competitors had mechanical problems, it was good meet, the crowd had fun," said Rae.

Great race meet

Meanwhile, Rae, with 26 points, is on top in the Two-Wheel Drive class, followed by Guyana's Paul Vieira, 18, and Barbados' Mark Maloney on 16.

Dubbed as the 'Caribbean Invasion 2010', the meet attracted another a large crowd despite the state of emergency imposed by the Government due to the unrest across the Corporate Area and St Catherine.

'It was a great race meet. The crowd was really entertained but in my opinion, I believe it was the motorcyclists who stole the show. They were very outstanding," said Jardine.

Other good performance came from Gary Williams, with his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 6.5, as he won the first race in his class, while in the second race of the day, Joel Jackson won ahead of Tedroy 'Teddy' Burton.

Ronald Donaldson, Kyle Gregg, Heath Causewell were also winners.

Graham sets new record

In the Improved Production 45 category for turbo-charged and normally aspirated street cars without roll cages - the introductory class for circuit racing - Kirk Diaz repeated his Easter race meet form with first-place finishes in both races.

A new track record was set for motorcycles when Canadian resident Kevin Graham powered his Yamaha R6 to a time of one minute, 22.935 seconds in winning Race Two for A class riders.

He had earlier won Race One, with Jamaica's Stefan Chin placing second on his Holey Bulla-sponsored Honda 600RR and Guyana's Stephen Vieira, who ended third in both events on his Sunburst Suzuki GSX-R600.

In Race Three, it was Vieira's turn to take the top spot on the podium, with Jamaica's Halquin 'Pugu' Rodney on the 'Money Bike' finishing second and Emil Janniere third.

In Class B, Dwight Smart won on his Kawasaki Ninja, followed by Greg 'Tallman' Cross on his Suzuki GSXR 600 and André Norman third with a 600RR in all three events.