Race-car of the Year !

Drum-roll please! I cannot recall if this award was given in previous years and the word – lazy – has built an impediment I simply cannot overcome. If the thought had appeared eons ago, I would have sought opinions from the avid readers of these pages. But as you complete each word presented here, allow your extensive knowledge of Jamaican motorsports to complete its ‘Google- search’ and then you can inform all of us which machine you would have chosen.

Which machine was the one, that in your view, ‘blew’ everything away and ‘rocked’ the grandstands with blistering speed and elevated performance. Obviously this machine may be chosen from any discipline. We retain now bias here!

There was a time when TA1 was the King of the Hill, but time has been rather unkind and it would be unfair to Doug’s machine, to suggest that TA1 is still the best at Dover. It is not. That title is currently in Montego Bay wearing a badge screaming – Audi!

But, would you regard the DTM Audi TT-R as the race-car of the year? Possibly not. It is still an awesome machine, but in an ocean of rapid machines, it was not the game- changer in 2014. Circuit racing at Dover followed the rehearsed script and the TOTAL machines ran circles around the opposition, except when mechanical issues arose.

Rallysport, in my view, is a limping, mortally wounded beast! It cannot even be said to be a shadow of itself. I am burdened by memories of the past when we would have on display machines which compete on the world stage! I mourn for rallysport! So, it would be safe to conclude that there was no gravel-pounding, tarmac-decimating machine which rallysport revealed which could be rewarded with Race-car of the Year honors!

Incidentally, machines wearing sequential transmissions are on the rise and I must admit that ‘ mi frighten fi dem’. I can recall sitting in an empty grandstand at Dover Raceway. Dusk was moments away, but a certain Pretty Blue-assisted machine was still in the fine-tuning stages. When it met the start-finish straight and began mating sequential transmission with engine, melodious ecstasy was born!

NDRC has brought new life to drag racing in Jamaica. What was long-lost was reclaimed and drag racing is again a calendar event at its temple – Vernamfield, Clarendon. Which machine was the game-changer at Vernamfield in 2014 and was it Race-car of the Year-worthy?

I welcome any debate that might arise and I am armed with more ammunition than that which is traded by the superpowers! So, bring your army, but prepare for defeat. There is a machine which was conceived with an agenda – shrink space, distort time, eradicate Physics and complete 1320 feet in a record- breaking and glory-claiming elapsed time!

The agenda was sealed and then the journey began. The march to Mount Speed was treacherous and arduous. Think of walking across the Sahara with two broken legs! Remember this word – decade – a word which represents the time it took to complete the machine!

If you are an enthusiast you should have selected the machine I described above. There is a race-crew that is still in the process of completing the last laugh. Jamaican folklore says it is the best! The team that built, raced and claimed the title of Fastest Door-Slammer in Jamaica (twice in 2014), prepares the 2014 Race-car of the Year.

BadBreed Racecraft’s Ford Mustang is the 2014 Race-car of the Year!

Happy New Year everyone!

Cecil Munroe Gleaner On- Line Writer