CIRCUIT RACING: SUMMERBELL – BULLIED AND BEATEN! PART 6

I had a difficulty choosing a spot to watch Race 3. To fully experience racing at Dover Raceway you must choose different vantage points. Several spots get you really close to the action – you can feel the disturbed wind triggered by the machines! Other spots allow you to hear, in unrestricted ways, combustion being initiated and speed being conceived and delivered. There are also spots which allow you to see all of the on-track activity but they are often times far removed from the track.

I expected intense shelling and barrel-bombs and I did not want to miss a single round! I decided to share the race with a few points. For the first few laps, I chose to stand at Pinky’s Bluff. Pinky’s Bluff is a spectator’s favorite because it offers a unique viewing experience and race-changing shenanigans have a way of gravitating towards this general area. The wisdom integrated in my choice was eventually revealed.

As the machines rolled off for their warm up lap, heaven could not conduct a board meeting! The volume eliciting horns and countless lips created misery for the deaf! The atmosphere generated enough power to satisfy St Ann for one month and two days! Dover Raceway was alive!

I recalled a discussion I had on Saturday. A gentleman explained loudly that the machine that was first to corner 1, would run away with the race. He was correct for Race 1. He was on-track for Race 2 until Doug and David tested his theory. Would he be accurate for Race 3?

I explained to him, when I was allowed, that TA 1 has no competitor in a straight line. It is simply the fastest accelerating machine at Dover Raceway and in the current TSR and Ian Webb attire, it is a rocket-ship! So, if it was ahead at the start – go and collect your winnings. And even if it was behind – P2 – exiting corner 1, the victor would not be known until the checkered flag barks because there were areas on the track where its strengths allow it to rise to the fore.

The TT-R, I was aware, can test testicular fortitude in the department labelled BRAKES! And if applied as it should, the TT-R’s ability to abandon its brakes forever could possibly extinguish TA 1′s acceleration advantage. We had a race on our hands.

The machines I could hear in the distance. I watched as they roared towards the starter’s post. He gleefully dispatched the I approve – go – signal! Jubilation exploded everywhere. Vuvuzelas would have been belittled if they stopped at Dover Raceway for Race 3! It was a taxi-man convention – horns were everywhere!

But, the machines were hurtling towards corner 1. A consenting victim of my Pinky’s Bluff position, it was not immediately clear who arrived at corner 1 first, but by corner exit, the distinctive TOTAL danger-red assumed prominence. Multiply pandemonium by the amount of money you wish you had!

TA 1 was a yawning gap ahead of Kyle Gregg. Kyle? Not the TT-R? How was that possible? Time did not allow queries! TA 1, like Pepsi’s effervescence, was exploding with time-attack speed, but the immobile corner ahead forced an adjustment. And in an instant TSR fans lost their independence. Slavery returned, shackled by unfolding events.

TA 1

TA 1 was programmed to deliver linear braking and sublime handling, but from where I was, it appeared as if the brakes did not attend the Cabinet meeting and as such it was not aware of what was required. TA 1 while in the lead, approaching corner 2, leapt into a convulsion. An erratic convulsion which propelled the machine off the racing surface and onto the domain of the flora!

Fortunately the King earned his dues on Rally Jamaica’s treacherous stages. The save was child’s play – snap oversteer corrected, blades of grass scared #2less, the machine adopted bounce-about trajectory, but returned safely to the track. TSR fans retrieved their hearts but the damage was done.

During the shemozzle, former TSR stablemate, Kyle Gregg jumped through the window of opportunity and exited corner two – P1 – with the TT-R snarling at his rear wheels! And I saw this action-thriller from Pinky’s Bluff – priceless.

HOLLYWOOD

I was possibly watching TA 1, but I  missed the move of the race! Kyle Gregg’s machine, in my view, did not seem to be the force it was in April. I might be wrong, but it appeared rather ordinary. Hollywood was not concerned though or maybe he saw the same thing. When I eventually watched it, Hollywood passed Kyle Gregg at an area which gave him a huge ‘stripe’ in my book!

At the corner to begin the climb to the Pepsi hairpin, Hollywood, like a stone released from a slingshot, transferred from being behind Kyle to being in front, in a rather tight space. Big drive Doug Gore!

I left Pinky’s Bluff and went to an area of rocks above the back-stretch leading to the container bridge. If you have not been there before you do not know what you are missing. A visceral orgy awaits!

Cecil Munroe Gleaner On-Line Writer