Vieira returns to Bushy Park CMRC at Williams International

Multiple Guyana Motor Racing & Sports Club (GMR&SC) Champion Mark Vieira will compete in the Seaboard Marine Caribbean Motor Racing Championship (CMRC) at Bushy Park Barbados for the first time in four years when he lines up alongside fellow-countryman Andrew King at the Williams Industries International Race Meet next weekend (September 1/2).

  And, as the organising Bushy Park Motor Sports Inc (BPMSI) heads in to the final countdown, race fans can enjoy an evening of free one-on-one contact with some of the island’s top racers at tonight’s (Friday) ‘Speed & Passion’ Promo Lime from 4.00 to 8.00pm in the Sky Mall car park. Committee member Adrian Mayers says: “We should have more than 20 cars on display, along with some retro cars compliments of the Retro & Classic Cars Club. Drivers and club members will be on hand to interact with the public, it’s a great opportunity to get up close and personal with the guys racing at the weekend. Sky Bar will be on hand to cater to the drinks side of things, while Burger King will be open for those who need food. Thanks to Sky Mall for their continued support.”

  King (Mazda RX-7) is the Reigning CMRC Group 4 (4wd) Champion, while Vieira (RX-8) finished fifth in Gp4 (2wd) after only one appearance last year, at his home circuit of South Dakota last November, with two race wins and a second-place finish behind Mark Maloney (RX-3), who claimed his second consecutive Gp4 (2wd) title for Team Barbados. Vieira’s return to the category at Bushy Park renews a legendary rivalry at the St Philip facility, which dates back more than a decade.

  With a closed-season regulation change now re-uniting the 2wd and 4wd classes in a single CMRC Gp4 class, spectators can expect some thrilling encounters. Currently second in the standings behind the USA’s Quinian Lall (Mazda Miata) after the first two rounds in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, Vieira looks certain to take the Group lead in the absence of both Lall and the drivers immediately behind him in the table. King is also set to benefit, while a strong set of results could catapult Maloney in to contention for the third year in a row.

  The two Guyanese drivers have been among the most regular regional visitors to Barbados, and among the most successful, even before the island became a Host Country for the current CMRC in 2008. In 2004, Vieira claimed a clean sweep of the major awards at the first regional race meet supported by Williams Industries – he was the Overall Champion Driver for the weekend, won all three Group 3C races, with King, Maloney and his father Doug sharing the podium places, and also set a new saloon car lap record for Old Bushy Park in his RX-7. King was an almost annual visitor in subsequent years as he continued to feature in the top six in the year-end CMRC standings, with a race win in 2010 and three more podium finishes.

  Both returned in July 2014 for the first CMRC event on the re-developed Bushy Park Barbados, with Vieira’s Q3 and third-place finish in the second race the highlights of an otherwise disappointing weekend. While they missed the Barbados round for the next two years, King returned in 2017, the top points-scorer in Gp4 (4wd), while Vieira has raced in the island more frequently, in the former Suzuki Challenge Series SR3 Cup, in which he won two races and claimed six further podium finishes.

  The Williams Industries International Race Meet will run on the 2.01-kilometre International Circuit; the 22-race programme will cater for the CMRC categories, Groups 1 to 4 for cars and Superstock 600 Bikes, all incorporating BPMSI’s points-scoring classes, along with the Radical Caribbean SR3 Cup’s third round and the BimmaCup Challenge, with the traditional Hilti Handicap rounding off Sunday’s track action.

Williams Industries International Race Meet details:

Friday, August 31 (gates open at 11.00am) – Testing: admission free

Saturday, September 1 (Gate 3 and North ticket booth opens at 11.30am) – Practice and Qualifying for all classes: admission free to patrons who purchase tickets for Sunday

Sunday, September 2 (gates and ticket booths open at 10.45am) - Race Day: Coolers welcome, except in Clubhouse. General Admission Bds $25; Clubhouse (food and drink on sale) Bds $50; children 12 and under are free. Hammer 4 x 4 Zone vehicle pass Bds $25, Cyclone 4 x 4 Zone vehicle pass Bds $40, plus General Admission pass for each occupant

Tickets are now available on-line at www.bushyparkbarbados.com and at the Bushy Park Circuit Office, also CS Pharmacy (Broad Street, Bridgetown), Fresh Market (Coverley) and Sol Warrens, St Michael