Double Caribbean Motor Racing Champion, Kristian Jeffrey, is joining the Suzuki Challenge Series Swift Cup for the balance of the season. Driving for Team Suzuki, his first outing will be in this Sunday’s (May 8) third round during the Barbados Festival of Speed at Bushy Park.
A second-generation racer from a family of sportsmen and women, he first raced karts on his home track of South Dakota. He won the country’s first-ever shifter kart race, then the Championship, before migrating to Canada, where he was crowned Canadian ASC Rookie of the Year & Driver of the Year when he started racing cars in 2013.
Following father Kevin into the CMRC, Kristian claimed a hat-trick of wins in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX on his debut at Bushy Park in July 2014, along with the saloon car lap record (1m 01.620s); that record stood until last Sunday (May 1), when a new mark of 1:00.932 was set by Mark Maloney (Mazda RX-3). Jeffrey went on to win the CMRC title in both 2014 and 2015 with an impressive record of 14 wins in 21 races.
When the Swift Cup season kicked off with a double-header over Easter weekend, Team Digicel’s Ryan Wood was the star of the show, with two pole positions, three race wins and three fastest laps. Jason Parkinson (Team Infra Rentals/Sol) and newcomer Arron Parris (Team RBC) joined the roll of honour as race-winners, while six top four finishes from the consistent Josh Read (Team Massy United Insurance) has placed him third in the standings behind Wood and Parkinson.
Other 2016 newcomers who return this weekend seeking to improve on their debut results are Carlos Edwards (Team Rock Hard Cement), whose best finish was fifth, Martinique’s Pascal Calvel (Team Suzuki), who logged a best of sixth, and Kyle Catwell (Team ICBL), who finished seventh twice. Daryl Clarke (Team Digicel) also returns to the grid, having been unavailable at Easter.
Stuart Maloney dominated the SR3 Cup over the Easter weekend, claiming only the second hat-trick of Radical SR3 victories since the Series was launched. He arrives with a solid points advantage, but will need to work hard to maintain the position; his brothers Mark and Reigning Champion Sean also former race-winners, along with Suleman Esuf, while David Simpson is determined to improve on his best result of second.
Young Guyanese Calvin Ming returns, having missed the Easter races with a clashing fixture; he has recently taken delivery of a new car, which he has been testing at Bushy Park this weekend and hopes may give him an edge.
Also back on the grid is British teenager Jack Manchester, whose lap times came down steadily over the three rounds of the Winter Cup, during which he achieved a best result of fifth. Although he has visited the island previously, fellow-Brit James Abbott will race at Bushy Park for the first time; as well as being Radical’s test and development driver, he has won UK Clubman’s Cup (2011), European Masters Supersport (2013) and International GT Open Cup PROAM (2015) titles in the factory’s products.
Qualifying for the Suzuki Challenge Series will be on Saturday, with two races each for the Swift Cup (8 laps) and SR3 Cup (10 laps) on Sunday during nine hours of on-track action.
Suzuki Challenge Series:
Swift Cup, round 3, Sunday: 11.20am – Race 1 (8 laps); 2.30pm – Race 2 (8 laps)
SR3 Cup, round 2, Sunday: 11.35am – Race 1 (10 laps); 2.45pm – Race 2 (10 laps)
Swift Cup – provisional entry list, round 3:
1 Kristian Jeffrey – GUY (Team Suzuki)
2 Daryl Clarke (Team Digicel)
3 Ryan Wood (Team Digicel)
4 Jason Parkinson (Team Infra Rentals/Sol)
5 Josh Read (Team Massy United Insurance)
6 Kenrick Husbands (Team Williams Industries)
7 Barry Gale (Team Gale’s Agro Products)
8 Pascal Calvel – MTQ (Team Suzuki)
9 Carlos Edwards (Team Rock Hard Cement)
10 Kyle Catwell (Team ICBL)
11 Arron Parris (Team RBC)
12 tbc (Team Simpson Finance)
Swift Cup – points after round 2:
1st Ryan Wood (Team Digicel) 113 points
2nd Jason Parkinson (Team Infra Rentals/Sol) 98pts
3rd Josh Read (Team Massy United Insurance) 87pts
4th Dane Skeete (Team Simpson Finance) 77pts
5th Ryan Peyrau – T&T (Team Suzuki) 63pts
6th Kenrick Husbands (Team Williams Industries) 40pts
7th Arron Parris (Team RBC) 39pts
8th Kyle Catwell (Team ICBL) 29pts
9th Carlos Edwards (Team Rock Hard Cement) 26pts
10th Derek Edwards (Team Digicel) 15pts
11th Pascal Calvel – MTQ (Team Suzuki) 14pts
12th Freddie Gale (Team Gale’s Agro Products) 4pts
SR3 Cup – provisional entry list, round 2:
5 David Coelho – T&T
7 David Simpson
10 Calvin Ming – GUY
14 Suleman Esuf
16 Stuart Maloney
17 Jack Manchester – ENG
22 Sean Maloney
33 James Abbott – ENG
86 Mark Maloney
SR3 Cup – points after round 1: 1st Stuart Maloney 75 points; 2nd Mark Maloney 48pts; 3rd Sean Maloney 46pts; 4th Suleman Esuf 39pts; 5th David Simpson 32pts
