Circuit Racing: Long live new rivalries! (Kyle Gregg vs Alan Chen)

We all love winners, but we love the battle that leads to winning even more. We want our chosen driver who is blinkers-equipped – maintaining a single purpose – but employing blinding speed, to roar first through the checkered flag, before the other powerless, deflated combatants in the race.

But, isnt it uncanny, that when our driver is the run-away winner, the elevated levels of excitement we chase, when we show up at the race track and indulge vicariously in speedhunting, is inexplicably absent. Our bias will not be concealed by a veil, our preference is stated vociferously, to those who cannot help but hear and for that, we make no apology. But, at the same time, we prefer if the joust maintains a certain degree of civility and decorum.

We want an engaging encounter, a ding dong battle, a bumper to bumper tussle, an edge of the seat experience, a nail-biting episode. That is the type of race we we will gleefully welcome with an extended embrace. We talk about races of that flavor with no end in sight and somehow we are quite adept at telling the same eye-popping story, with a different set of facts and in a more intriguing manner than the last time it was told – to the same audience!

I anticipate the knitted brow, querying the direction of my rant. Brow release thyself! I have developed a habit of chilling for a race or two, while at Dover, simply to absorb the happenings around me. It is somewhat difficult to let the moment soak in while you are in it, based on the fact that, while at the races, everything is happening at speeds which would embarrass the legal limit! So the trained mind has to adapt in the chaos. I have now mastered the art!

Sit, listen and observe. You would be amazed by what you see and hear! Of relevance here is this. We are forcefully informed through media bombardment who the 2 main protagonists in the 2012 Dover Raceway series, are – David ‘King’ Summerbell Jr and Doug ‘Hollywood’ Gore, despite the fact that neither of the 2 won the Drivers Championship last season! Which brings me to the crux of the matter.

Kyle ‘Speedy’ Gregg is the defending drivers champion. At the April race meet – the Easter Carnival of Speed – an unplanned series of events wrote an interesting introduction to a new chapter in Jamaican motorsports. A charging Alan Chen, chased and passed a struggling Kyle Gregg and Kyle Gregg indirectly wrecked both machines immediately after being passed by Alan. The match was pressed against the box, the sulphur wrestled its inevitable fate and as it broke free and sought to distance itself from said box, a flame was born.

During qualifying on May 26th I passed by Kyle’s pit-bay and his father, Gary ‘the Colonel’ Gregg was not his usual calm, mild-mannered self as he spoke about Kyle’s performance in qualifying – Alan out-performed Kyle in qualifying.

On race day, I overheard a male fan speaking to someone on his cell phone. He was urging the individual on the other end to hurry. The obvious emergency was painted on his voice -  Alan’s race was about to start. The tempo rose when Alan, Kyle and company took to the grid. The anticipation was not only tangible it was visible!

Thank you Kyle Gregg and Alan Chen, you have effortlessly given all of us one more valid reason to make the all important trek to Dover on race day! Long Live new rivalries!

Cecil Munroe Gleaner On-Line Writer