By Stephan Sookram

FOLLOWING a dominant performance at his last outing, group two racer Shan Seejatan is banking on his form and the form of his car, heading into the March 20 National Race of Champions.
Seejatan, hands down the best group two driver at the last motor racing outing in November of 2015, says that he is focused on using his set-up as an advantage and is using this Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club’s (GMR&SC) meet to test reliability.“We haven’t made much improvements to the car from the last race meet (November). The car completed the meet without any problems so we will run the car with very minimal changes and hope everything goes smoothly,” said Seejatan.
Meanwhile Seejatan says that March 20 is expected to feature new drivers and he is wary of the threats that come with them.
He added, “The meet is going to bring a lot of drivers out. It’s the first meet of the year and it’s also an opportunity to test the cars before team Guyana is chosen for the first leg of the Caribbean Championships.”
“However, I have confidence in myself and as I said before, the car ran well in November and I think that this set-up suits me so that’s what I’m looking at,” said the driver.
With an eye to the season-opening Caribbean Motor Racing Championships (CMRC), Seejatan says that once the car performs well, there is scope to make its touring debut in 2016.
Seejatan’s main sponsor is Special Auto, which is fielding two other cars to the newly formed GMR&SC 1600cc group of competition.
According to the GMRSC’s technical adviser Brian Ten-Pow, the new class will feature any make or model of machine that is 1600cc (subject to inspection and scrutineering) and weighs 2200 lb.
The class also specifies the use of a standard size and compound of tyre as well as pump gas purchased locally.
The aim of the class is to ensure that the traditional ‘pocket-racing’ is minimised and drivers push drivers to rely more on skills and their mechanics to build better machines.
GT&T and Fly Jamaica are the main sponsors of the Championship to date. Admission has been set at $500 per child and $1 000 per adult.
Race time is 09:30hrs.