'Reggae Racers' ready for Williams Digicel International

The Jamaica Race Drivers' Club (JRDC) will continue its 'Reggae Racers Regain & Retain' campaign by fielding a six-car team for the second round of the 2011 Seaboard Marine Caribbean Motor Racing Championship (CMRC), feature event of the Williams Digicel International Race Meet at Bushy Park on August 27/28.

JRDC President Hilary Jardine says: "It is our intention to regain the coveted CMRC Country Champion title we last held in 2008, also to retain the Champion Driver title, which would hand David Summerbell Jr an unprecedented seventh success, as well as a hat-trick, having won the title back-to-back for the last two years."

In the three seasons in which the CMRC has been contested by Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica, the Country Champion title has been won once by each country; after Jamaica's triumph in 2008, Barbados claimed the title in 2009 – the winning margin of 39 points was comfortably the most crushing of the three – and Guyana last year.

This year, Barbados leads the country standings ahead of its home round for the first time, but by a margin of just one point; with Jamaica, which lies second, confirming a full complement of six drivers and Guyana expected to do the same, fans can expect a weekend of high-powered competition at the end of the month.

Champion Driver for the past two years, David Summerbell Jnr, heads the Jamaican entry in his Total/Caribbean Producers/Cariburst/Motorcraft Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII; he will arrive for BARL's ninth annual International this month leading the Driver standings for the fourth year in a row, following a hat-trick of victories in his home round at the Dover Raceway in Jamaica in May.

His best outing at Bushy Park came last year, the first time in three visits that he finished all three races, with results of second, third and second, having qualified fifth; his one victory at the St Philip facility – that came in race three in 2009 - made him the only driver of the current crop to have won CMRC races at all three host circuits.

While Jamaica is fielding six cars this year, compared with three in 2010, only two more drivers are familiar with Bushy Park, the other returnees being Chris Campbell and Peter Rae; although each has only raced there once, Campbell and Rae both have a 100 per cent finishing record, which bodes well for Jamaica's attack on the Country title.

Campbell was the more successful of the two in Jamaica in May, and lies sixth in the current CMRC standings, with fifth and sixth places to his credit in his new-for-2011 Mitsubishi-powered Busta/Fruta Premium Juices/Stoplight Wholesale BMW M3. On his sole outing in Barbados in 2008, he qualified eighth in his previous Evo VI, then finished sixth, fourth and seventh in the races.

Veteran racer Rae was fourth in Dover's first race this year in his Mazda RX-7, but retired from the second and failed to start the third; even so, he lies seventh in the current standings. On his Barbados debut last year, he qualified 11th, then finished 10th, seventh and eighth.

Jamaica's Bushy Park newcomers include two more who contributed to their country's points total at Dover in May, George Bayley and Andre Anderson. Former drag racer Bayley was in the points in all three first-round races in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI, while ex-karter Anderson (Valvoline/Andersons Auto/NG Racing Mitsubishi Mivec) finished sixth in the only race he started.

The JRDC's final entry represents a first for the Bushy Park round of the CMRC, as Dean Shaw will bring his Design-O-Rama/Speed Factory/Carib Pro Challenge truck, which runs in the Thundersports class in his home country.

Jamaica's six-man team will enjoy a final shakedown before the trip to Barbados at this weekend's (August 6/7) Independence of Speed race meet at Dover Raceway, after which their cars will be shipped south courtesy of series sponsor Seaboard Marine.

Williams Digicel International Race Meet timeline

Friday, August 12 – 4:00pm: Meet the Drivers promo, Mall Internationale, Haggatt Hall
Friday, August 19 – 4:00pm: Meet the Drivers promo, Mall Internationale, Haggatt Hall
Friday, August 26 – 4:00pm: Meet the Drivers promo, Bushy Park, St Philip
Saturday, August 27 – 1:00pm: Qualifying, Bushy Park
Sunday, August 28 – 8.00am: Williams Digicel International Race Meet
Monday, August 29 – 7.00pm: Prizegiving
* all times are approximate