It was a rough qualifying day for the Guyanese pair of Calvin Ming and Kristian Jeffrey, both of whom are participating in this weekend’s Barbados Festival of Speed at the Bushy Park Raceway.
Jeffrey, who will make his debut in both the Suzuki Challenge Series as well as the SR3 series, joins the returning overseas based Ming, who will test out his newly acquired Radical.
However the two-time defending Caribbean Champion’s first outing was marred with SR3 mechanical problems during qualification.
He (Jeffrey) will have to start ninth on the grid today once the mechanics sort the problems with the car out.
Meanwhile in the swift series, he will start eighth after posting a time of 1:17.879 seconds. The sportsman-of-the-year 2015 was just over half a second off the pace of pole sitter David Summerbell’s 1:17.219.
“It’s two different complete cars; jumping from the Radicals straight to the Swift. I had limited time on the swift but in the earlier sessions we got down to an earlier time in P3 (3rd practice) and I just ran into some traffic during qualifying so I really didn’t get to put down a good lap timing,” Jeffrey said.
In the Radicals, Ming could only muster 7th on the grid after his fastest time of the day was a 1:00.090 time. Barbados’ Suleman Esuf was the quickest during qualifying 58.930 time.
Ming however said work is ongoing on his car, adding “we’re trying to work on the car right now to get it ready for the race day (today). The plan today is to get a good start and try to move up the field as quick as I can so I can stay with the front set and not get left behind”.
The highlight of this weekend’s activity, is that of current Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton who will do several exhibition runs in his 2013 Mercedes F1 W04, as well as several other vehicles. There will also be autograph signings and special treats for fans when the gates of the Bushy Park Raceway open at 09:00.
