SOLODEX I - 2001
Sunday 21st, January 2001

Pictures

Rookies shine at SoloDex-1
The first leg of the 2001 SoloDex Championship series got off to an exciting start at the Arima Race Club carpark on Sunday 21st January 2001 to mark the first ‘official’ motorsport event in T&T this year. The annual series, now in its second year, had many familiar faces as well as some new, eager and willing ones. Some of these newcomers, called Rookies, proved that they were at no significant disadvantage by upsetting many of the more seasoned competitors.

First off, this year promised to be bigger and better, with some new rules and measures to ensure fairness and efficiency of the events. The PAX system has been completely eliminated and cars, like last year, are being classified into one of 5 classes mostly according to their power-to-weight ratio, with consideration given to tyre choice and suspension modifications. New Autocross Timing software and hardware sponsored by ACL has replaced the Christmas tree and software loaned by Autosport for the 2000 series. The new equipment worked flawlessly and really helped the flow of the competition. In addition, all competitors in the same class ran in the same run group under similar track conditions, so competitors knew where they stood in their class as soon as they completed a run. Other new goodies included the start of a team championship consisting of the best 4 scores for the year from a 3 car team and a rookie of the day award. The Rookies, like the sun, shined all day at SoloDex-I
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The Rookie of the day award went to Kirk Ho Hing in his ‘Mr. Fixables’ Honda Civic SiR. Kirk placed second in the ESP class ahead of seasoned competitor Sean Bissessar in his Peugeot 306 turbo. This is probably the first turbo charged 306 in Trinidad, but maybe it needs some fine tuning Sean? Winner of the ESP class and last year’s ESP Champion, Ryan Pinheiro drove his Peugeot 205 GTi to a best time of 53.847 seconds, beating Kirk by just over a second. As usual Ryan outfitted his 205 front wheels with Kumho Victor Racer tyres sponsored by Laughlin & DeGannes.

Another Rookie, Anand Awai, displaced seasoned ES competitors with his driving skills and knowledge of handling his Toyota Corolla 1600 placing third ahead of Shaun Mohamed in his Toyota Corolla 1500. Was it the new bonnet and front-end that positively affected the car’s aerodynamics Anand?? SoloDex 2000 ES class and overall champion Graeme Hutchinson placed first in this class in his Suzuki Baleno with a time of 55.312 seconds, beating Shelley Ross in her Crism sponsored Honda Civic CVT by just over 2 seconds. What’s the secret Graeme?

The closest results of the day came in the GS class where the winner and 2000 female champion, Alicia McKenzie in her Mitsubishi Lancer clocked a best time of 59.176 seconds, a mere 0.3 seconds ahead of Anson Eccles in his Nissan Bluebird, and 0.9 seconds ahead of Susan Singh, or ‘sliding Susan’ as she is better known, driving her similarly equipped Mitsubishi Lancer. Guys, what’s wrong here? Since Susan beat Alicia by almost 2 seconds in the last event, SoloDex-VI 2000, we’re anticipating a real battle this year as Susan attempts to upset Alicia’s plans for dominating the class, while Anson is determined to redeem the pride of the men in the class who were beaten by the ladies.

The HS class also had its share of battles with last year’s class champion Gerard Dial in his Mileage Mack sponsored Chevy Joy winning the class. Was it the Traction AA low profile Toyo tyres Gerard? He clocked a best time of 57.010 seconds, 1.3 seconds ahead of Wayne Hutchinson in his Ford Laser.

Keen and exciting competition also emerged from the EP class, which has most of the fastest cars. Peter Morris, although not competing, put down a beautiful driving display to clock the day’s fastest time of 47.526 seconds in his fully prepared 4WD turbocharged Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI outfitted with Michelin tarmac racing tyres. The winner of the EP class, Cristian Bourne, also displayed driving finesse when he set the fastest competition time in his Crism sponsored Honda Civic Type R with a time of 49.421 seconds. Cris’s car was outfitted with Kumho Victor Racer tyres supplied by Mileage Mack and this combination gave the EVO a run for its money. Rawle Mahabir, another regular at SoloDex 2000, and driving Peter’s street Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V, placed second with a best time of 52.684 seconds.

After the competition was officially over, there were the traditional ‘fun runs’ when many of the drivers in the competition improved their best times of the day because they let it all hang out. Other newcomers including Duane and Rawle from TriniTuner and ShellShock tried their hand at what seemed so easy for the competitors, only to realize that it’s not as easy as it looked.

There are still some of last year’s competitors and other interested Trinis preparing to sign up in the Championship which so far has some 24 competitors. SoloDex has been described as a fun, exciting, challenging, inexpensive, competitive, relatively safe motorsport that teaches you what you can and cannot do with your car. Come see what all the fuss is about at the second leg of the SoloDex 2001 series carded for March 25th at the ARC carpark. Competition starts at 10am.