Guest Blog: Jody Forte>> Cmrc Rd. 2 In Barbados

What a week of Speedhunting! Hello all, I'm Jody Forte. I'm a photographer and car enthusiast from the little island of Barbados. This past weekend, we hosted the second round of the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship (CMRC) at our local race circuit Bushy Par. What a weekend it was! Quite a few overseas competitors came in for this event and not just from other competing Caribbean countries like Jamaica and Guyana. We also had some racers from Europe join the party! My wife, Seema Forte, and I shoot a lot of local motorsports events here and we figured this event was a good opportunity to start to show more of whats happening here on this little island to the world. What better place than on Speedhunters! Here are some of the shots from practice sessions, qualifying and race day. Lets get right into it…

This guy had a good weekend! Steve King in his R33 Skyline had the fans in an uproar. Although he only won one race of three, he gave it his all and this car was blazing fast…

King won by a mile…

King fights his way back for the lead after getting run off the track and he literally came from the back of the pack! St. Elmo isn't about to let him take back first place so easily!

Group 3C was a mix up of turbocharged animals, and NA beasts!

The last two races in group 3C saw a serious dog fight between local favourite St. Elmo and this Vauxhaul powered Audi from England.

A wolf in sheep's clothing. This Audi TT is mostly a tubed frame silhouette car powered by a 2.0L Vauxhall. It was quite impressive.

He managed to take a win by days end….

This is the ex-AMS TA1 time attack car which David Summerbell bought a few years back to campaign in Jamaica. A previous CMRC champion, it's a beast of a car. Many waited anxiously to see if it was enough to deal with the contenders from Barbados who had upset the apple cart at the last round of the CMRC in Guyana last year.

Summerbell streams down the stretch!

Who doesn't love a good Cossie? This Escort from England was quite the sight….

One of the English competitors Adrian Beer in his Rover v8 powered MGB GT. Quite a beautiful car.

A serious stack of ITBs feed air to the 4.1L rover powering the MGB.

It really is majestic in action….

Even when the rain hit during practice, these guys were still driving all out. Some of the local old school RWD just couldn't help but to get sideways! :)

This car, heck, this guy is crazy… but more on that in a bit.

This Turbo Mitsubishi Colt was among some of local cars practicing during the week.

Kenrick 'Snapper' Husbands in his infamous KP61, powered by a high revving 4age. He is a seasoned local driver and a regular class winner.

He found himself in a serious dog fight for pole position with another great local driver, Edward Corbin.

Young Harewood in his KP61 won every race in his class.

Jason Parkinson in his Datsun.

Jamal 'Kirby' Brathwaite put in a hell of a drive on race day!

The first race meet for Jones in his F20c powered ae86 unfortunately went sour when his AE86 was t-boned.

This was the man to watch: local favourite, Roger Mayers. He and his brother, Barry Mayers, have seen the top of both rally and track racing in Barbados over the years. They both only entered the CMRC for the first time last year and only missed round one in Jamaica. Roger didn't finish last year's round in Barbados due to an accident with another driver. But when he finally raced in Guyana the car dominated –simply dominated. It set a new record and all. It currently holds the lap record at Bushy Park and that did not change this Sunday as this car was leaps and bounds ahead of everything on the track.

After one lap, he had an uncanny amount of distance from the competition

Although only finishing one race of three he finished on the podium, quite a victory! Dare, I say, the fastest circuit car in the Caribbean!!

Barry's "Suzuki SX-4." Its actually a re-shelled Renault Megane Trophy silhouette car powered by a 2.5 Renault V6. An engineers wet dream!

In a acceleration battle with the TA1.

Leading the pack….

Barry would go on to win race two and three of the CMRC. What a day for M&M racing!

Mark Maloney in the Rotary rocket….

This triple Rotor Mazda Rx3 is a precise and angry beast of a track car, a local favourite.

The car is astonishing in person. It has ridiculous build quality. Its a showroom classic.

Daddy Doug Maloney's ex BTCC Audi is a sleeping giant

Back in Barbados for first time in a while, with a new triple rotor powered full carbon Rx8 silhouette car, was Mark Vieira. Unfortunately, the car didn't make it to race Sunday, which was a disappointment for many…

Doug Gore in the next 4WD Evo entry from Jamaica.

The tubed frame RX-7 of Guyana's Andrew King is an amazing piece of home built engineering. This car handles very well. He fought for second place in the various rounds and bested the times of any other overseas competitor –including the TA1.

The familiar looking Evo of Guyana's Kevin Jeffrey while fast, was not up to the speed of the cars at the front of the grid…

The CMRC race had more cars than ever before on the grid!

THIS guy…

…and this car, made our weekend…

This J's Racing CRX, campaigned by Irish J's Racing dealer Tuning Factory, and driven by Barry Rabbitt, was just a sight both in the pits and on the track.

Its so simple, so clean, sooooo Japanese. It just goes, stops and turns. I had high hopes for this car watching it practice and NO ONE was disappointed come race day!

He spent most of the day battling local E30 racer Justin Campbell

Round one saw this incident which put the CRX put of fight for pole position…

…and Campbell taking the win!

But with race two, the CRX had to start further back and he fought his way to second place rather quickly where the battle started again.

Rabbitt managed to nab a spectacular pass on the E30 followed by a win, which made the crowd wild with excitement!

Kevin Graham of Guyana was quite the rider in the Bike Category.

He was fast –really fast!

He took podium in all the Bike races for the day.

Another Barbadian rider.

This rider had quite the spill at qualifying.

Sammy finishing off the day with a gross display of power :)

…and that's it!

Thanks for reading/browsing through our guest blog! More of the action can be seen at our Flickrs here and here!

-Jody Forte

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1

I'd like to congratulate the author on an excellent first-time submission to the website.



The article is a true expression of the Barbadian motor sport scene and the photography captures every detail in startling and vibrant colour.



I look forward to seeing more submissions from this author.



Happy Speedhunting!!!

2

good pics and write up jody

3

Brilliant write up Jody, Look fwd to much more

4

Great first time write up...keep up the good work

5

heard some drivers from barbados might go to the uk i hope the focus of roger mayers leads the pack.

6

Awesome write up Jody, its a great submission as Kirk ably highlighted. Anyone not there by the end of the article, feels like they never missed a thing.



Also there is lots more to come from the little island in the sun, folks.

7

Wow,some awsome cars over there i love the CRX,Rx3,MGB,and the tubed Rx7.

A whole lot of love :P

8

Speedhunters should do more stuff motorcycle related

9

Great write up! This is what my dreams are made of! Grassroots racing.

10

Awesome, I would love to see more of the RX3, that car is insane, used to wear Red Bull colors no?

11

Wow ! Those Starlet made me plan to take my dad's Starlet to refresh & make it into race mode ! BTW , very good picture from Mr. Jody Forte .

12

Oh S***!! look what we have here....You did our little country proud with those pics Jody. Nice pics, They keep getting better.

13

great post! love to see some of the more grassroots events from all over.



oh, and I want that Rover V8 from the MG. so tasty.

14

Excellent contribution!

15

this is awesome, its great to see this coverage of racing in countries not usually associated with racing. The grassroots nature of the track and the crazy frankenstein cars. People have a different approach to racing around the world and this is great to see! This gets me pumped up to go driving

16

I am so excited to see Caribbean Motor Racing Championship stuff on Speedhunters! There is some truly insane cars competing there, its racing in its purest form!

17

I am truly blessed to have a fellow Barbadian photographer document what was an extermely entertaining race meet. Jody! your photos captures the MOMENTS and those will live forever. Please continue to make your submittions as you work is exemplary.



Regards

Colin Reid

Treasurer

Barbados Auto Racing League (BARL)

18

more on Suzuki SX-4. pleaase

19

Good job boss, now the world can see that Barbados has not only sun & sea but nuffty horsepower and sweet sweet smell of rubber burning on the tarmac.

20

Crazy cars! Good post.

21

i love this, so many different types of race cars on the same track.

i need some video of this ASAP hahaa.

22

This made me so proud to be a Barbadian.The photography and presentation was excellent !!!

23

BARBADOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

24

Looks like an awesome racing scene there! Wish I had somplace closer to see motorsport like that!

25

VERY worthy, indeed!

26

Wow I honestly didn't expect that from Barbedos. Love it man, love it! Especially the old skool racers. Great write up too!

27

Thanks all for the comments we will make sure to brings more of Motorsports in Barbados and eventually the Caribbean to Speedhunters. This really is an honour for us.

28

TA-1 is fast but not fast enough! shout outs to M&M racing fastest 4wd & RWD in caribbean ?

29

Please more on that RX3, please!!!!

30

Awesome Write up Jody! Great shots!

31

Fark that RX3 man.

32

spotlight on the RX3!

33

Those are amazing shots you have there. Aug the 29th was a great sunday, I would do it again next weekend lol

34

Fantastic pictures and a really nice write up! Lots of really nice machines there. Sucks about the AE86 getting T-boned. Hope the driver is ok.

35

Fantastic post, this event is crazy!

36

Great posting Jody.



It is what you would expect when you combine both you passion for motorsport and photography.



Cheers.

37

Wow, Jodi, congrats on your guest blog! I never thought i'd see material of yours here, and I must say, that's very good material. I guess the only pics of yours i had ever seen were of your [re]build of the gray coupe with the 20V and thereafter the BEAMS. You, sir, make incredible shots!



Cheers!

38

Good to see these photos get us some photos of the engine compartments to see where all those horsepower is made

39

Barbados has it going OFF! anyone links to any forums/sites etc. where I can find out more?

40

E30 driver fail, nice write up

41

Fantastic job Jody,

The shots and the write up bring the event to live.. GREAT

42

do a shoot on that kenrick kp61 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

43

An awesome showing as usual, maybe we can get some more US based teams to participate to get the competition level to go up just one more click.

44

Nice ode to the racing scene in the CARIBEAN, not just Barbados. Great Shotys Jody, Looking forward to seeing coverage of the Guyana leg of the Series. Too bad you weren't in Jamaica to do a write up on the first round.



Great stuff. I feel proud today :D

45

Some cars look like toys..

46

im a big fan of big wings when done properly, but wow i have never seen so many home made ugly jobs in one post haha.



and that tube fram audi looks dis-proportional.



im sure they are quick cars though

47

Good job Jody - the shots are great and I like the short, crisp write-ups. Would love to see more of this at future meets and regionally. You obviously have a passion for the sport. Kudos to forte photography.

48

heard so much about this, guys in tuning factory had an experience of a lifetime and to get such good results makes us all proud here to have them as a local tuner aswell as getting people thinking about going

49

holy shit that rx3 is beastly

50

Didn't even know our lil island made it to Speedhunters, great write up and pics Jody keep 'em coming dude!!

CMRC FTW!

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