The 2008 Caribbean Motor Racing Championship came to a thrilling close on Sunday, November 2, 2008 at the South Dakota Circuit in Guyana, when the third leg of the championship was held in front of a record crowd at the facility, which also saw an amazing 103 competitors perform on the day! Stuart Maloney of Barbados was crowned the Caribbean’s top circuit driver having amassed 54 points, finishing first in five of six races entered in the three event series. Team Jamaica consisting of drivers David Summerbell, Douglas Gore, Chris Campbell, Guy Fraser and Gary Williams walked away with the team championship at an elegant prize giving affair at The Pegasus in Georgetown, Guyana on Monday night.
Following an absence of many years from the regional sporting calendar, the Caribbean motor racing Championship was revived through the hard work of the member countries of Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with individuals such as Jamaica’s Hilary Jardine O.D., J.P., Capt. Marck Carey, Guyana’s Vishook Persaud, Barbados’ Kurt Seabra and many others working together to make the series a success.

The first leg of the championship was hosted in Jamaica on May 25 and saw Jamaica’s David Summerbell take the early lead, winning two of the three championship races on the day and finishing third in the last, driving the very potent Motor Sales & Service Ltd/Flow/Ciclon Energy drink/AMS Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 8, popularly known as TA1. He scored a total of 26 points, with Guyana’s Andrew King driving the Singer Mazda RX7 in second on 19 points and Douglas Gore in a Mitsubishi lancer Evolution 5 on 16points. Mark Maloney of Barbados driving the Red Bull Mazda RX3 was quite impressive in winning the third race in the championship after being plagued by repeated fires and an accident on the first attempted start of the race.

It seems that Summerbell had all his good luck in Jamaica, as at the second leg at Barbados’ Bushy park circuit, bad luck was all the luck he could get as he failed to score a single point, falling victim to a series of mechanical maladies that included a blown turbo, losing a wheel assembly in qualifying/practice, and suffering damage to suspension/steering components in the second and third races. It was at this meet that the local boys shone, with Barbados’ Stuart Maloney driving the Automotive Art Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 5 being the class of the field and running away with the race win of all three events to score 30 points! His father, Doug Maloney, took the lead of the championship with 35 points after bringing home his turbocharged Audi Quattro Touring car to two second and a 4th place finish at this round, having a total of 35 points. At the end of the day, it was Jamaica leading the team championship, Barbados leading the driver’s championship, and the fear of God put into both nations heading into the third round in Guyana news spread of new equipment arriving in Guyana to even the score for the host nation of the 3rd and final round.

November 2 arrived and with it ominous dark clouds that started pouring their contents onto the flat South Dakota race surface, which literally put a damper on the morning’s first event. On the day before, Saturday, David Summerbell had qualified on pole position and signaled to all that he was serious about the championship, his car having been repaired before it was shipped from Barbados to Guyana by technicians from  American Motor Sports, the original builders of the car. He would receive a scare however, as he broke his gearbox on the day and was loaned Doug Gore’s spare box, as his was damaged beyond immediate repair. Stuart Maloney’s crew discovered a cracked intake manifold that was repaired overnight and restored the rightful amount of ponies to be unleashed on race day. Doug Gore was happy with the new race engine installed in his car, proud of the fact that his car was now the fastest it had ever been.

The first race was an all Stuart affair, as the Maloney offspring was well prepared and used his rain tyres and 4 wheel drive handling to good effect and won convincingly ahead of Gore and Summerbell, the latter again somewhat unprepared by not having proper rain tyres and suffering a puncture to boot! The second race again saw Maloney win, this time with Summerbell in second place on his way to setting a new track record and Jamaica’s Guy Fraser in third. The third race saw Summerbell jump ahead of Maloney and negotiate the first corner ahead of the field. He was to keep this lead until the end of the race, although challenged strongly by Maloney who was to falter with a broken prop-shaft and would finish in fourth.

Stuart Maloney thus finished with a total of 54 points from six races entered, as he was absent from the first leg in Jamaica and gained enough points from just the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the championship to walk away with the title. Jamaica copped the nation’s title and will look to the 2009 series which will again start with the 1st round of this now vibrant regional championship at Dover raceway in May.