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Team Barbados has its sights set firmly on winning the coveted Country Championship title as it confirms a 10-strong team for the final round of the Seaboard Marine Caribbean Motor Racing Championship (CMRC), to be staged at the South Dakota Circuit in Guyana next month (November 15/16).
Only 12 points cover the leading three territories, Trinidad & Tobago having leap-frogged into the lead with 308 points after returning as a host country in August for the first time since 2006; Guyana is second with 297, with Barbados third on 296. Jamaica trails on 151 points.
Stuart Maloney, CMRC Champion in 2008, is returning to the series for the first time in five years. He will drive the Group 4 Paints Plus / Maloney Racing Audi A4 quattro in which his father Doug has three times finished third in the CMRC. Looking forward to his trip, he said: “I have always been very passionate over track racing and really enjoyed racing in the CMRC. The hospitality from the Guyanese is fantastic, too. It is important that we, as drivers, reciprocate to keep the momentum going.”
Maloney won five of the six races he contested in 2008 in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI, beating Jamaica’s David Summerbell Jnr (Evo VIII) to the title by five points, with Doug a further five points behind in third place. Maloney’s rivalry with Summerbell will be renewed next month, as it was confirmed a few days ago that he will return to Guyana, after missing last year’s event.
The Group 4 team is completed by Mark Maloney (Digicel / RBC / Valvoline / Maloney Racing Mazda RX-3) and Steve King (Valvoline / Automotive Art / King’s Auto Parts Nissan Skyline GT-R). The Mayers brothers are both side-lined, Roger with significant accident damage from CMRC round 1, and Barry with persistent engine problems; Stuart Williams was ready to travel until his Lotus Elise developed a gearbox problem at the recent Beacon Insurance BMF Club Meet at Bushy Park a week ago.
Williams said: “There is no time to analyse and resolve the problem, unfortunately. Guyana made a concerted effort to send a strong team to Barbados this year, so I am saddened at the prospect of not being able to play my part in reciprocating that effort.”
Since last year, the CMRC Country Championship has been calculated by combining points scored in Group 4 and Group 2, in which Barbados is entering a strong team, led by current points leader and 2012 Champion Mark Thompson (Stag Beer / Automotive Art / Glassesco Hardware / NKM Clothing / Bio-Beauty Day Spa / Local Speed Honda Civic). While it is mathematically possible for Marc Gill of Trinidad & Tobago to surpass Thompson’s current points total, it would need a hugely unsuccessful weekend for the Bajan not to claim his second CMRC Group 2 title in three years.
He is joined by his brothers Kurt (Honda CRX), the reigning CMRC Group 2 Champion, and Neil (Civic), recently returned to the sport after a lay-off. Also touring are 2011 CMRC Group 2 Champion Kenrick Husbands (Williams Equipment / Hilti / NP Oils / Ultra Lubricants / Big Gasses Toyota Starlet), winner of three races at South Dakota in the past three years, Quincy Jones (Structural Systems / Castrol / R & F Delivery Services / Creative Designs & Finishes Starlet) and Steve King (Automotive Art / Valvoline / Percy King Auto Parts Starlet).
Finally, although there has been no official CMRC Superbike Championship this year, two race-winners from the recent Beacon Insurance BMF Club Meet will be making the journey south, Devan McCartney (Zephirin’s Bakery / Belleville Auto Spares Suzuki GSX-R600) and Terrance Ollivierre (Percy King Auto Spares / Belleville Auto Spares Suzuki GSX-R600).
Team Barbados Manager Kurt Seabra said: “Although we are unable to field as strong a team in Group 4 as we had hoped, I expect Stuart Maloney in the Audi to perform well – he won two of his three races at South Dakota in 2008, enough to secure the title, and he should be a strong contender this time, too. Our Group 2 team is very strong, including three former Champions, so we’re going to make a concerted effort to win our third Country Championship title.”
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