By Avenash Ramzan
Phenomenal Canadian driver/coach, Darryl Timmers, will on Friday showcase his driving skills when he competes at GT Motorsports’ inaugural Georgetown Grand Prix at the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club on Thomas Lands.
GT Motorsports’ Chief, Vishok Persaud, earlier this week announced that the experienced 28-year-old, who is a former coach of Guyana’s driving sensation and two-time Caribbean Group Four champion Kristian Jeffrey, will touch down on local soil to be part of the activity.
Timmers, who has racked up 17 wins, over 60 top five finishes and 43 podium spots in a career that started in 1998, will compete in the shifter karts against a plethora of Guyanese, who would be determined to defend home turf.
Timmers, a former Canadian champion and 2010 Florida Winter Tour Four-stroke winner, will suit up against the likes of Kristian Jeffrey, which should be an interesting subplot of ‘teacher-student’ facing off.
Among the others set to represent the Golden Arrowhead are Stephon Jeffrey, Elliott Vieira, Mike Gonsalves and Denzel Hopkinson. Timmers has been enjoying positive returns on the track recently, and he will enter Guyana bubbling with confidence.
“More recently I raced Touring Car competitively for two years with a partial schedule. I finished on the podium five times in five races in the Ontario GT Sprints. I was fortunate enough to obtain sponsorship money, enabling me to race in one Grand-Am Race in the ST class. I started 35th and raced my way to fifth position in the rain before my fuel pump malfunctioned and we were forced to retire,” Timmers said.
A driver with a distinguished career, Timmers started training kart drivers in 2007, working with Karts and Parts, which is one of Canada’s top kart shops.
“I have been working with Audi Teen Driving Academy, as well as the Lamborghini Canada driving experience. I worked with Pro Mazda driver Dalton Kellett from 2008 to 2012 where I developed him from a driver with no experience to winner at the national level. After working with Dalton, I started to work with two-time Olympic medallist Elvis Stojko. In his first year of racing, Elvis finished second at the Canadian Nationals with a full summer of training at the track,” Timmers explained.
Stojko is a Canadian figure skater, who won silver at the 1994 and 1998 Olympic Games. The three-time World champion and seven-time Canadian champion switched to racing karts in 2011 in the Canadian Rotax DD2 Master Class.
In 2012, Timmers started his own karting team, and he currently has 15 students under his guidance, ranging from ages seven to 56.
“I am also working with Radius Drive and Robin Buck Racing with corporate events in the automotive industry. I work with manufacturers such as Ford, Cadillac, Land Rover, Jaguar, Honda, Porsche for their High Performance driving events, as well as a driver coach for Drive Tech, Sixth Gear and Engineered Automotives High Performance,” Timmers informed.
The Georgetown Grand Prix will speed off at 18:00h, with a total of 15 events carded for the night. Apart from races for the senior drivers, there will be events for the 6-15 age group.
The event is sponsored by Monster Energy Drink, Sun Burst Juices, Stag Beer, Ray’s Motor Spares, Secure Innovations and Concepts, E-Networks, Superbet, Ocean Spray Hotel, B.M Soat, Prem’s Electrical Store and Honda Powersports. Admission to the event is free.
