Tough battles on opening round of BKA championship
Who says the beginning of the season is easy?
Drivers at the first Barbados Karting Association’s 2012 Frutee Championship race meet definitely found out otherwise as there were many fierce battles throughout the competitive day last Sunday.  The day was sponsored by Surf Shak and the organisers used a clockwise configuration at the Bushy Park Racing Circuit.
2011 Champion driver, Zane Maloney has moved up from the 60cc Class and into the 270 Sportsman Class. The young driver created a quite stir as well as on the day in his new group as he clocked the third fastest qualifying time of the day and the fastest in his class. The only competitors to go faster than him was Christian Hinds and Tremaine Forde-Catwell both of whom were competing in the 310 Premier Class.
Tremaine Forde-Catwell (right) leading Christian Hinds during the 310 Premier Class and the 270 SPortsman class race.
With an impressive qualifying time under his belt, Zane continued his impressive start to the season in a new class as he captured a victory in the first race. However Joshua Maloney, who had to settle for second place in the first race and Saviola Thomas who was third, fought back in the second race. Thomas took the first place and Joshua second, relegating Zane to third.
This seeming has set the tone for the rest of the season as these three are already fighting hard for supremacy. But it was Joshua Maloney who carried off the day’s victory in the class with 92 points on the day as he won the remaining two races.
Such was the nature of the battle in the class that there was a tie for second place between Zane Maloney and Saviola Thomas, each with 82 points from four races. Fourth place went to Aiden Fortier who has also moved up into the 270 Sportsman class from the 60cc Easy Kart. In the 310 Premier Class a battle was also raging with such close times between the drivers it was sure to be a nail biting day of racing. Though he qualified second in the class, Tremaine Forde-Catwell was able to get the better of pole sitter Christian Hinds in the first race.
With no room for error and the young drivers having to keep their cool under pressure, it was Hinds who was able to get ahead in the second race to win. These two continued to swap places at the front as Forde-Catwell captured his second victory in race three, while Hinds was second once again. However in the final race Hinds found himself in an incident which caused him to stall and this allowed Forde-Catwell to go onto an easy victory in the final race of the class.
As a result Forde-Catwell also was the day’s winner with 96 points, while Hinds was third with 82. Moving up into the 310 Premier Class this year was Javani Smith and he was third with 70 points. Nick Gill was fourth and Rapheal Russell was fifth.
In the 60cc Easy Kart Class, Megan Gilkes who was making her return to the sport after sitting out the later part of the 2011 season with a broken arm swept the class and carried off the maximum 100 points.
Second was Noah White. The next scheduled karting event is March 4 at the Bushy Park Racing Circuit.
Adrenaline Sun
Adrenaline Sun is a new-media action sports magazine that gets inside the world of Caribbean extreme sports to bring you every thrilling event through original content, videos, e-publications and social media. We don’t focus only on the biggest sporting events. We engage regional and international fans and athletes in key action sports niches including skateboarding, paintball, BMX, and off-roading. We also attract a highly enthusiastic local fan base that includes avid sailors, surfers and motorsports junkies.
Follow:
