(Compliments of Fly Jamaica, Nexus Machining, Bell Communication and GT Motorsports)

THE weekend Jamaican Karting excursion called Double Trouble came to an end on Sunday with positive results for Guyanese.

While they had mixed fortunes over the two-day event with several podium spaces, they learnt something more important than winning, and that was the ability to adapt.
Justin Ten-Pow was the standout performer in the Micro Max event where he picked up three third place finishes but was disqualified from one.

The disqualification resulted from a restrictor plate on the exhaust of his kart being too small and thus out of specifications, though the Guyanese argued that they were unaware of this having borrowed karts to compete.
In the end, they lodged a protest with the Jamaica Karting Association (JKA) over the event with the body expected to make a formal ruling later in the week.

Still, Ten-Pow was still upbeat over his performance in the new class, especially considering the fact that the engines used in the Reggae Isle are vastly different than those used here.
In the Junior Class, there were podium finishes for Mikhail Persaud and Rayden Persaud in the final races while Elan Rahaman picked up a third in one pre-final.

Utilising rules that were also foreign to the Guyanese, the JKA runs firstly a qualifying session followed by a pre-race which is to decide gridding for what they call the finals where the points are awarded to the finishers.
This is done in two rounds to complete one karting weekend.
In the seniors Matthew Phang while failing to finish on the podium was one of the standout performers in one of the largest groups.

He managed to hold his own and keep up with some of the host’s drivers, despite only learning the kart this weekend.
There was also one third-place finish for Steven Nobrega who competed in the Super Rotax where competitors have to race cautiously so as to not go faster than 59 seconds.
This quirky rule ensured that there were several penalties for those who did faster than the pre-defined time.

Mechanical woes plagued Justin Ten Pow all weekend as well in the Mini Max class.
In the end, however, all the Guyanese were awarded with tokens for participating.
The Guyanese departed before the final round of races on Sunday.