ILLEGAL RACERS have been invited to come off the road and join the Barbados Association of Dragsters and Drifters (BADD).
Newly crowned champion driver Jason Downey issued the invitation soon after receiving his trophy at the association’s annual awards presentation at Kendal Sporting last weekend.
“I refer to my group as the ‘hot hatch’ class and I keep hearing about all these fast cars, but they are only on the road,” he said.
“ . . . But they ought to come off the road, join BADD and help add to the competition, especially in my class, the 9.5-0.5 seconds category.”
The Toyota RunX driver, who grabbed the trophy after winning all the races in his category during the last season and amassing a massive 431 points, said it was a challenging year, but a good one for him. He said he was looking forward to the new season which is due to start on February 16 at Bushy Park.
“My preparation is really a ‘nut and bolt’ check as my car is also my daily work car. Andre Waithe and Noel Edwards would assist with the tweaking, and detailed mechanical work such as installing a limited slip differential, was done by the team at AutoLink.
“But I am doing some upgrading to meet the start of the new season,” Downey explained.
Adding that the system was not yet used by anyone in BADD, he said he and his technical crew would be keeping a close eye on results as they worked with the new package.
At the March meeting, Clifton Pilgrim won the 10.5-11.49 seconds category; Dwight Jordan the 10.00-10.49 seconds category; Downey the 9.50-9.99 seconds; Shoy Gumbs the 9.00-9.49 and Dwayne Clarke the 7.00-8.49 seconds category.
In September, Roger Lindo, Downey, Shawne Fields and David Hobbs won the four classes contested, while at the November meeting the group winners were Downey, Russell Yearwood, Bradley Hill, Jamal Forde and Corey Stanford.
Behind Downey in the overall standings, British driver Hobbs finished second with 403 points, Clifton Pilgrim was third with 304, followed by Gumbs (244), Edward St John (229) and Lindo (212) who rounded out the top six.
During the ceremony, the much fancied Steve Bruce not only carried off the fastest four-wheel drive trophy, but also the trophy for the driver with the fastest elapsed time of 7.114 seconds and for the fastest 60-foot dash with a time of 1.649 seconds.
Sherlock Payne won the trophy for the fastest reaction time, while Kevin Griffith took the fastest front-wheel drive trophy with a best time of 8.188 seconds. Corey Stanford capped a good year by taking the fastest rear-wheel drive trophy with a time of 8.04 seconds.
