Four race wins for Team Barbados at CMRC Wallerfield

 Reigning Group Champions Mark Maloney and Mark Thompson claimed two race wins each for Team Barbados in round two of the 2017 Seaboard Marine Caribbean Motor Racing Championship (CMRC) at the Frankie Boodram Wallerfield International Raceway in Trinidad & Tobago at the weekend (July 29/30). Changeable weather conditions, with frequent showers, made for a challenging race day for competitors and organisers alike.

  Maloney was making his second CMRC appearance of 2017, having opened his account at the Jamwest Raceway in Jamaica in May, where he won Group 4 2wd in the second race to place third behind T&T's Franklyn Boodram (Renault Megane Trophy) and Jamaica's Peter Rae (RX-7), who scored 30 points apiece.

  Maloney missed Saturday's qualifying session after damaging a rotor seal in the morning; the engine of the Rock Hard Cement/Sign Station Mazda RX-3 was rebuilt overnight and he started the first race at the back. In wet conditions, he powered through the field, setting the fastest lap on the way to victory, heading Group 4 4wd winner, local ace Christian Bourne (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), home by nearly 10 seconds. Bourne was just over a second clear of the similar Evo of fellow-countryman Ross Viera, with Boodram fourth and second in Group 4 2wd another 20secs adrift and the only other unlapped runner.

  With another fastest lap to his credit, Maloney repeated his overall and class win in race two, 14.5secs clear of the field, with Boodram this time joining him ahead of the 4wd runners; Bourne was third overall and top 4wd, with Guyana's Andrew King, who has elected to run his Mazda RX-7 in the 4wd class second and Viera third. Boodram won race three after Maloney failed to finish when engine problems intervened in the closing stages, while Bourne completed a hat-trick of 4wd victories.

  Reigning Group 4 2wd Champion Maloney has raised his total of group wins to 14 since Barbados first joined the CMRC in 2008 and heads into his home round at Bushy Park Barbados in September second in the standings to Boodram; Rae has slipped to third, having not competed at Wallerfield.

  In Group 2, three-time Champion Thompson was only just beginning his title defence at the weekend, having missed round one in Jamaica. He qualified the Glassesco/NKM Clothing/Slam 101.1FM/Bio Beauty Honda Civic sixth, with home-grown talent to the fore in a class in which T&T has traditionally fielded strong competitors. He won the opening race of the day, which was cut short by an accident involving the Civics of local drivers Mark Williams and Luke Bhola; Williams would race again, but Bhola, who had been second in the standings, was out for the rest of the day.

  Thompson retired from race two with engine problems - T&T's Marc Gill won that one from Williams - but returned for a second victory in the final race of the day, despite having to start at the back of the nearly 20-strong grid, with Williams again coming home second. Thompson has now contested 60 CMRC Group 2 races, his brace of victories at the weekend bringing his total to 25.

  Everyone's attention now turns to round three, to be staged by Bushy Park Motor Sport Inc (BPMSI) on September 2/3, with the final round at South Dakota on November 11/12 to be run by the Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club (GMR&SC).

Photo compliments Mikey Spice