(By Stephan Sookram in Jamaica, compliments of Fly Jamaica, GT Motorsports, Nexus Machinery and Bell Communications)

THE Jamaicans will have their hands full with Guyanese competition this weekend during the Jamaica Karting Association (JKA) Double Trouble battle.
Set for the Palisadoes karting track in Kingston, the two-day event will feature six Guyanese competing across three classes.

After yesterday’s official practice, they are all upbeat about their chances in their respective classes.
In the Rotax senior class, Guyana will be represented by Matthew Phang while in the junior division, the attack will be three-fold among Rayden Persaud, Mikhail Persaud and Elan Rahaman.

Up to late yesterday, the Guyanese were still working to bring their times down to the average track times as they get ready for today’s qualifying which begins at 10:00hrs.
According to track officials, the senior class karters are near the 57-second timings with Phang already down to low 58s while the juniors average just around the same.
Rayden was pushing times of 58.5 for his junior class which carries just about the same time bracket with Mikhail posting low 59s and Elan in the same region.

In the Macro class, Jeremy Ten Pow was able to post a 59.2-second time with the average time being around the 58-second bracket.
Justin Ten Pow, who is in the Mini Max class was posting 1:05 second time in a group where the average time is around 1:03.
Speaking to Chronicle Sport, JKA president David Summerbell contended that the process for the exchange programme begun just over a month ago.

“Since we were down in Guyana about a month back, we started discussions about having a few Guyanese here for our karting event. It is fabulous that it all worked out this way and we have some of the best youngsters here this weekend.”

“I have to say a big shout out to the sponsors, of course Total Lubricants, Fly Jamaica and there are so many more that have come on board for this event.”
Today’s qualification begins at 10:00hrs with racing set for just over an hour.