Guyanese aiming to recover from qualifying troubles

(By Stephan Sookram in Barbados, compliments of Ming’s Products and Services)
THE Guyanese participants at the Barbados Festival of Speed got off to a rocky start with qualifying yesterday, which meant that both Kristian Jeffrey and Calvin Ming will start their respective classes today, down the order.Ming, who returns to the Suzuki Challenge Series SR3 Cup (Radicals) with a new machine, will no longer be the “newbie” as the double Caribbean group four champion Jeffrey joins the party this weekend.
Apart from the Radical, which Jeffrey has rented this weekend, he is also participating in the Suzuki Challenge Series Swift cup with his newly sponsored team Suzuki car.
However, neither got the reception they were looking for during the Qualification yesterday, as they both qualified down the pecking order.
In the Radicals, Ming could muster only 7th on the grid with a best time of 1:00.090, while today’s pole winner, Suleman Esuf, was only 1.1 second quicker with a 58.930 time.
The f4 and F1600 driver added that his team is still working on the car, saying that they have had just under a week to get it set up to his style and driving preference.
“We’re trying to work on the car right now to get it ready for the race day [today]. The plan today is to get a good start and try to move up the field as quick as I can, so I can stay with the front set and not get left behind,” Ming contended.
Second place on the grid belongs to Stuart Maloney, followed by his brothers Sean and Mark in that order, then David Coelho and Jack Manchester.
Jeffrey will have to start ninth on the grid in the radicals after not being able to qualify due to mechanicals problems yesterday.
In the swift series, he will start eighth on the grid of 12 cars. His 1:17.879 seconds in his first swift outing was just over half a second off the pace of pole- sitter David Summerbell’s 1:17.219.
“It’s two different, complete cars; jumping from the Radicals straight to the Swift. I had limited time on the swift, but in the earlier sessions we got down to an earlier time in P3 (3rd practice) and I just ran into some traffic during qualifying, so I really didn’t get to put down a good lap-timing,” he said.
The newly minted sportsman of the year continued, “Because I was jumping out of a radical into a swift, I only got to put down three laps. I know in the race, I think I have a decent pace to match the front-runners, so it’s just about getting a good start and going from there.”
The highlight of this weekend’s activity is that of current Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, who will do several exhibition runs in his 2013 Mercedes F1 W04 as well as several other vehicles.
There will also be autograph signings and special treats for fans when the gates of the Bushy Park Raceway open at 09:00hrs.