MONSTER Energy and the Gizmos and Gadgets teams were the dominant forces for the second round of the Secure Innovations and Concepts Endurance Rental Cup, held Wednesday evening at the GT Motor-sports facility in Thomas Lands.In the 600lb class, strategy and skill paid off for the Monster Energy team as they bided their time well to emerge eventual champions.
A dog-fight between the Brava team’s Stephan Jeffrey and Monster’s Carlos Rodrigues ensued for the lead, with the duo ‘dicing’ from their introduction in the final leg.
The Monster team came out .4 of a second ahead of the Brava team but were unable to extend that gap, as Stefan closed them down almost instantly, before producing a quick ‘set up and pass’ gambit on the less-seasoned Rodrigues.
Packing a decade of karting under his belt, Stefan, who resides in Canada, called on every bit of defensive technique to hold off the Monster team and while the duo diced, Stefan ultimately fell out of the race with less than five minutes remaining, leaving the Monster team unchallenged.
Opening their leg, the Monster team saw Kian Jabour take on the early challenges of two-time Caribbean Group four champion Kristian Jeffrey of team Brava and while he was overtaken for the lead about three laps in; Jabour managed to stay consistent.
On the first mandatory switch 20 minutes in, Brava, who had built up more than a half-lap lead brought in Shan Seejattan while Monster swapped for Antonio Da Silva, who had begun to slowly close the gap, retaking the lead just before the last mandatory switch.
Kristian copped the fastest time award, a 40.4 second fast lap for the Karcher Sweeper award.
The Speed team, (Kamal Seebaran, Clint Seebaran and Rameez Mohammed) picked up third.
Earlier in the evening, the Gizmos and Gadgets team ran untouched in their 500lb class, leaving team ICool second and Dericks Auto Spares (Shane Haley, Michael Whitehead and Sachin Ramotar) third.
Matthew Phang set down a blistering early pace which amounted to a lap gap over the first 20 minutes before John Phang took over and extended that. Steven Nobrega closed off the evening in style.
The second-place ICool team, consisting of Matthew Vieira, Elliot Vieira and Marcel Profitt had earlier trouble when they fell to third, but fought their way back of to second on the grid.
Wednesday’s event was sponsored by Monster Energy, Karcher, Auto Fashion as well as Secure Innovations and Concepts.
All roads this evening lead right back to that facility where the second of the two-day event takes place.
Fifteen races are carded for the evening in various classes, including the 60cc, 125cc junior and senior as well as the Shifter karts. Four foreign drivers are expected in the father daughter duo of Ravi and Bridget Singh of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbadian Orry Hunte, and former Canadian karting champion Darryl Timmers.