Seth-Ross Turney helped to bring the curtain down on the old Bushy Park at the Barbados Auto Racing League’s Beacon Festival of Speed last Sunday.
Driving Peter Small’s Honda Civic CRX, Turney drove away with the Monster Energy Handicap, the final race of the day, with a best lap time of 49.207 seconds, recorded on the fourth lap of the ten-lap race.
He was chased home by the Peugeot 205 driven by Adrian Bailey, whose best lap time was 53.280 seconds.
Edward Corbin, in a Toyota Starlet, recorded a best lap time was 47.090 seconds and fourth placed Steven Watson in the ex-Freddie Mapp Ford Escort, returned a best laptime of 48.025 seconds.
The meet was billed as the final one at Bushy Park before it undergoes redevelopment.
An elated Turney told MIDWEEK SPORT he was happy with how the car worked and his own performance.
He said: “I hadn’t won any of my races during the day, only picking thirds and fourths, but my friend Peter (Small) asked me to drive the car as he thought that I would have a better chance at winning the race driving his car because of my style of driving.
“I am happy and glad that I was given the opportunity to drive in the race.”
In a day of exciting racing watched by a large crowd, only the Bushy Park overall lap record-holder Stuart Williams won all the races allotted to his group, despite having to start at the back of the Group 3 Classes 1 and 2 and Group 4.
But winning was by no means a walkover, as he had to drive around the field to take the chequered flag, while the Thompson brothers, Mark and Kurt, driving a Toyota Starlet and Honda Civic respectively, took the honours at stake for the lesser groups.
Danny Wiles, in a Toyota Starlet, had set the tone among the drivers by holding of challenges from Anderson Roachford and Derek Herbert, both in Toyota Starlets.
It was the first of two wins for Wiles, while Roger Rowe took the other races allotted to Group 1, before Paul St Hill, in a Toyota Corolla, collected two good wins among Group 2A drivers, brushing off challenges from William Jones, who later won the third race, and Peter “Bird” Bryan and Vere Ford in a Starlet.
In Group 2B, Quincy Jones, in a Starlet, got the better of the field and went on to score his only win of the day. Peter Small in the Honda Civic CRX made no mistakes in taking the others, while Kenrick ‘Snappa’ Husbands, at the wheel of a Starlet, experienced some difficulty negotiating the turn on the back straight and ran into the tyre wall, resulting in damage to the front of the car.
Mathew “DMZ” Ford, in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V, Michael “Chubz” Carter in a Honda Civic and Roger Lindo found winners’ row in the drags of the Barbados Association of Dragsters and Drifters, while former Barbados Karting Association champion driver Christian Hinds made off with the Beacon Challenge for karters, winning all the races allotted.
