… Some new faces on executives

JOHN Carpenter was returned as president of the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC) after a landslide victory at the club’s Annual General Meeting, which was held at the Club’s facility on Albert Street and Thomas Lands on Monday night.Also being re-elected was Mahendra Singh who will for another term serve in the capacity of vice-president.
Hansraj Singh was nominated and elected to serve as the club’s treasurer, replacing Aaron Bethune, Carey Griffith will serve as secretary, replacing Angelique DeGroot, Danny Persaud is the new club captain, replacing veteran motor racer Andrew King and after some years without a technical director, the electorate voted in favour of veteran motor racer Ray Rahaman to serve in that capacity.
Two new faces – Roshan Ali and Bobby Rasul – will join King, Wayne Vieira and Mohammed Rashandin as committee members.
The meeting which created quite a lot of interest in the motor racing circles was chaired by Kashief Khan who, in his opening remarks, urged the electorate to let good sense prevail when the time comes to elect office-bearers for the new term.
Prior to the AGM, attempts were made by a certain faction within the motor racing fraternity to have the 2012/2013 executive removed, but their efforts proved futile on Monday night, as the John Carpenter-led faction put forward a solid case for being re-elected.
The faction which called themselves `Team Alpha’ or the `A’ team and led by Harold Hopkinson sent e-mails to the media and social web sites citing that all was not well in motor racing locally.
In his e-mail, Hopkinson suggested that the GMR&SC was in `a mess’ of unprecedented proportions, and urgent action needs to be taken immediately to rescue the club in order to save the sport from further decay.
“There are members of this organisation as well as outside forces that are seeking to mislead the public and convey the impression that all is well under their stewardship,” Hopkinson stated in his e-mail.
However, in delivering his report for the year 2012/2013, Carpenter outlined a different picture – one which outlined everything that transpired over the past year.
Carpenter said during his tenure in office, the GMR&SC has developed a workable relationship with the Ministry of Sport and sponsors. He noted also that Guyana has been dominating the sport at the Regional level.
He informed that the GMR&SC plans to meet the government to discuss a waiver of rates and taxes for the clubhouse “to put us in line with other clubs”.
Carpenter stated that at the end of October 2013, the GMR&SC was in the red to the tune of $7M, but after collecting gate receipts for the November 2013 meet at the South Dakota Circuit, “it shows a positive”.
Carpenter and former committee member David Fernandes separately regarded the attempts by the Hopkinson-led `Team Alpha’ as character assassination on the Carpenter-led faction.
The GMR&SC head warned that if the club cannot stand together, it will end up like its counterparts in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, both of whom have tremendous problems.
Carpenter reminded once more that the GMR&SC currently enjoys a cordial relationship with the government of Guyana and at present, the GMR&SC is trying to define Guyana as a sports tourism destination and it needs to combine with the Ministry of Sport as well as the Ministry of Tourism to get VAT relief.
The newly elected president also indicated that legal action might be taken against the club’s former manager Rayon Samwaroo who, during his tenure, cannot account for at least approximately $1.2M which he allegedly received from persons for the rental of the facility over a period of time.
Carpenter said he is awaiting the findings to decide if the club will take legal action.

(By Michael DaSilva)