Caterham Champion leads charge to the Caribbean

British Caterham Champion, 20-year-old Lewis Thompson, will lead an invasion of more than 40 drivers from the British sports car manufacturer’s circuit racing series for the Caterham Caribbean Cup at Bushy Park Barbados next month. The biggest-ever single shipment of race cars to the island will leave the UK south coast port of Southampton later this month, arriving at the Bridgetown Port in mid-November.
  The Caterham Caribbean Cup, dubbed ‘CCC23’ (November 25/26) will be organised by Bushy Park Motorsports Inc (BPMSI) augmented by a team from Caterham Motorsport. This non-championship event, which is supported by Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI), will round off Caterham’s 50th Anniversary year and complete Bushy Park’s competition season, with races for the region’s own one-make category, the Suzuki-powered Radical SR3s, also on the programme.
  Simon Lambert, Caterham’s Chief Motorsport and Technical Officer is leading the visiting team, including race officials, technical staff and parts support, to work alongside BPMSI’s regular officials. Overseas trips are nothing new, as Caterham’s championships have visited venues including Grand Prix circuits Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and Zandvoort in the Netherlands, but Lambert is looking forward to the company’s first trip to the Caribbean: “It seemed like a crazy idea at first, but the support from our grids has been overwhelming. So much so, that we had to amend our plans to enable extra cars to be shipped! The drivers have been asking us for something exciting and special during the off-season, and importantly something that also appeals to their partners and families, so where else in the world could match up to a race weekend in the Caribbean?”
  A number of the 30 Caterhams being shipped by the Geest Line will be shared by two drivers over the weekend, with a day of open pit-lane testing on the Friday to allow time for the visitors to learn the 2.1-kilometre International Circuit. There will be four 20-minute Sprint Races for each category – Seven 270R, Seven 310R and Seven 420R – with the drivers sharing a car taking two races each, then two one-hour Enduros at the end of each day, Saturday’s under floodlights, with a timed mandatory pitstop for a driver changeover.
  Thompson enjoyed a stellar year on his way to winning the 2023 Avon Tyres Caterham Seven UK Championship, the top-tier title among the company’s five series. He won 10 of the 18 races he contested and finished on the podium seven times with a single fourth place his worst result. He had won both the Manchester and Buxton Kart Club and Northern Karting Federation championships in 2017 before switching to Caterhams in the 270R category; he progressed to 310R in 2020, becoming Champion in 2021, when he was listed among Autosport magazine’s Top 10 Club Drivers of the Year.
  Although he did not contest a full Caterham Seven Championship UK (CSCUK) season last year, he won eight of his 15 races, finishing sixth at year-end. For Bushy Park, he will be sharing his car with another of Caterham’s 2023 title-winners, Nick Highton, a Champion in the Academy, the entry-level series through which Caterham has introduced more than 1,300 novice drivers to circuit racing.
  The CCC23 entry also includes four other top 10 finishers from the 2023 CSCUK. Jake Swann and Angus Maclaine ended the season fifth and sixth in the standings, both with podium finishes to their credit, while Carl Jones and Oliver Smith were ninth and 10th. Jones is currently recovering after contact with another car in the final round of CSCUK at Silverstone (September 23/24) resulted in some bruising and aches and pains, but he has confirmed he will be well enough for the Caribbean trip next month.
  The Radical Barbados Trophy will complete the weekend’s timetable, with Practice, Qualifying and three races; this is a non-championship event, as logistics issues with the proposed qualifying rounds in Trinidad & Tobago resulted in the 2023 Radical Caribbean Cup being abandoned. Competitors from Jamaica and T&T are still confirmed to participate, however.

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