By Akeem Greene
The rail car from Trinidad and Tobago, driven by Andy Bissessar, proved to be the biggest crowd pleaser on a day when the favoured and mighty Team Mohamed’s suffered dearly from mechanical issues.
Bissessar won the Unlimited category at Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC) International Drag Race Meet, dubbed 1320 Heat, on Sunday at South Dakota Circuit.
What was deemed to be a colossal clash with the rail car and Team Mohamed’s white GT-R (Godzilla), proved to be a major disappointment. Firstly, the rail car got red light for jumping the line, then just as Godzilla looked to rope back the distance, it simply came to a halt with debris flying from underneath.
According to driver Terence Cox: “The flywheel housing has a shaft that runs through it and it ended up breaking on us…it basically transfers the power from the engine to the transmission, so it shut down on us. We are making these cars 2500hp, they came from the factory at 500hp, and every little thing has to be perfect and if not, it just breaks. And that’s the thing about racing, it breaks and you find the next weak link, and we just found the next weak link.”
Based on evidence seen by News Room Sport, the white car ran 7.87s at 189mph. This was achieved at practice Saturday (August 24), the same day the rail car clocked 7.9 seconds.
More so, the black GT-R (Goliath) made a pass at 8.56 seconds in qualifying, which is understood to be the fastest of the day. However, that car had some issues and did not return to race.
According to officials, Goliath won the eight-second class due to having the fastest time in qualifying. The other car in the group was Deryck ‘Mad Dog’ Jaisingh and his S&D Performance Supra, however, neither of the two came to the line for the final race.
While the speedster Guyanese fans have come to adore could not bring the goosebumps, the rail car stepped up to the plate.
Against the Godzilla, it clocked 8.787 seconds in the disallowed race while in showdown with Jaisingh, more of its swift potential was shown. It came from behind and blazed to a time of 8.584 seconds, while the powerful Supra clocked 9.06 seconds.
Trans Pacific’s Toyota Altezza, driven by Rameez Mohamed, won both the best burn out and the nine-second title.
Other winners were: 10-second – Oneal Higgins (Toyota Caldina), 11-second- Jagdeo ‘Mad Cow’ Seecharan (Nissan R32 Skyline), 12-second- Damion Persaud (Toyota Caldina), 13-second – Pierre Singh (Toyota Altezza), 14-second- Rafeeq Khan, 15-second- Ramesh Persaud (Premio) and 16-second- Shivan Ragnath (AE-91).
600cc Motorbike title went to Andy Rajkarran, while the seasoned Trinidadian Ian Atherly jumped the line and allowed countryman Michael Maturine to win the title in the Unlimited category with a time of 10.01 seconds. The ATV title went to Kevin Persaud.
Attention now turns to Endurance racing on September 15, while there will be the fourth and final round of drag racing on October 6, then the grand circuit racing on November 16 and 17.
