TT drivers win Caribbean circuit title

TT , racing to the lead after solid performances in the Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados legs, maintained their advantage in South Dakota (Guyana) to finish with an unassailable total of 1481.5 points ahead of Barbados (688.5), Guyana (648.5), Jamaica (492), Cayman Islands (60) and USA (15).

This country’s victory was made extra special as it was the 50th anniversary since the first TT driver competed in Guyana.

The local drivers that helped bring home the title this year include Marc Gill, Darryl Ali, Franklyn Boodram, Frankie Boodram, Zachery Boodram, Ronald Wortman, Luke Bhola, Haresh Nanan, David Lions, Che Carrington, Ravi Singh, Bridget Singh and Paul Viera.

Speaking to Newsday yesterday, Wortman commended the rest of the drivers on their success in what was a consistent showing this year. “We really went down there (Guyana) to race real hard.

Once we finish one race, it didn’t have enough points for one country to come up and beat us,” Wortman declared.

He expressed scepticism though about their ability to defend their crown in 2017 due to increasing financial constraints as the sport is currently not funded by the Government.

“Trinidad eh win in a long time.

Yeah, due to the lack of having a track, we have nowhere to prepare and test cars.

Last year we lost the Championship by eight points which is like one person placing fifth in a race.

We set out this year to win the Championships and prove to the Minister of Sport (Darryl Smith) and different people in Government that we have a real good motor sporting fraternity here and motor sport could go a long way for tourism and different things in this country,” Wortman added.

Asked which of the four legs posed the most challenge, Wortman was in no doubt that it was the finale.

“The Guyana leg was the toughest because it has the most amount of competition. It’s the stiffest in terms of quality.

All the good competitors like to go to Guyana because the interest down there is really good. It’s a well attended event,” he explained.

On the issue of lack of major sponsors, he confessed: “No one person sponsored the team. All the individual cars have their individual sponsors.

You pay your own way. Seaboard is a big sponsor of the Caribbean championship, they pay to ship the cars down and keep the Championship going.

Right now we have a good strong team but due to the economy now, a lot of the fellas saying they may not be able to travel the Circuit next year because every time to travel it costs n the vicinity of $20,000 to $50,000 depending on what category your car in, how expensive the tyres are.

A couple of the fellas was talking and saying we won’t be able to campaign if money hard.”