Drag Racing: Pre-Jamwest boost fest

As stated in an earlier piece Hi-boost is scheduled for Jamwest this weekend (the 28th), but guess what. Drag racers do not need a date to harass their engines, they do not wait on an invitation to seek to determine how much boost their Japanese motors can sustain before being blown to bits and they definitely do not a memo to remind them that they should change the oil in their VTEC motors, in preparation for an ambush on any given track selected.

So word got out, that a notorious drag racing haven was being made available for the regular Sunday happenings. The news took off into the stratosphere! The crews came out and they came out in numbers.

Mandeville, Old Harbour, Kingston and even Ocho Rios had several of their famous drag racers on hand to defend their town’s honour if necessary. You would think you were at the only watering hole in the middle of a tropical desert – a lot of persons made the trek!

Boost

Despite the unofficial nature of the gathering, it didn’t take long for the turbocharged Honda’s, present in abundance to start flexing their muscles. Once the race direction, length, start point and finish were determined and marked with tyres, the actors took centre stage and allowed the machines to do the talking. The pre-Jamwest boost fest was in full swing, anticipating the shift light at 8900 rpm!

No lights, drop hand style, signals the start of the race and you better be ready because if you are not your competitor will be gunning for the finish while you play catch up. You do not want to play catch up when you are meddling with the turbocharged atrocities and nitrous addicts that I saw blatantly displaying their arsenal of power.

Victor

Horsepower wasn’t in short supply at the little rendezvous and for those who were bold enough to rev to the start line, the jubilant spectators were grateful and this was emphasized by the shouts, whistles and utterances of approval that were audible everywhere once a race ended and the victor was confirmed.

It was comforting that Sunday’s activities took the racing from the public thoroughfare and brought it to a private and secluded area and hopefully with adequate organization the relevant areas will be addressed in due course.

What was commonplace though, was the slaughtering of a few prominent insane machines (at the official races) by lesser known, but equally potent machines. The speed, the sounds, the launch control were all too much.

Is there such a thing as the ecstasy of speed? That would be an ample summary of Sunday’s happenings at the hallowed drag spot. The only question on most lips when persons were leaving was – ‘is it a every Sunday thing?’ Oh the thrill of speed!

Cecil Munroe Gleaner On-Line Writer