It's good to see that the TA1 is still setting records.

 

Dover Raceway was the place to be last Sunday, August 3, when the Jamaica Race Drivers Club (JRDC) hosted the third round of the National Circuit Racing Championships, dubbed “Freedom of Speed” in honour of Jamaica's national holiday Emancipation day.

The much anticipated battle between top Mitsubishi drivers from Motor Sales & Service Co. Ltd., “King” David Summerbell and Douglas “Hollywood” Gore, lived up to the expectations of the fans of each driver, as they both tasted victory on the day. Summerbell had done some improvements on his Motor Sales & Service Co. Ltd/Flow/Ciclon Energy drink/AMS Motorsports Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 8, while Team Mobay Racing leader Gore had installed some new suspension components in an effort to have his 10 year old Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 5 handle the corners a bit better:
Summerbell fired the first shot in the morning qualifying session with a new track record of 1 minute 19.095 seconds around the 1.6 mile Dover circuit, which was backed up by a second lap of 1 minute 19 second just to confirm that the first was not a fluke and that he was serious about staying in the winner’s circle to which he had returned at the last meet. This had him start on pole position for the first Sobe Adrenaline Rush sponsored Modified Production race, which he duly won, putting some space between himself and Gore, both drivers being way ahead of the rest of the field.
Gore turned the tables on King David in the second Modified Production race, as with the track now wet from an afternoon shower after being overcast all day, both drivers changed tires to wet weather designs: Summerbell using Toyo Proxes and Gore using Hoosiers. Both cars were equal down the front straight after the drop of the green flag, with both drivers playing chicken to see who would brake first in the slippery conditions for the double apex Goodyear corner. It was Summerbell who fliched, giving Gore a half fender advantage to the second apex, though he was on the outside. This however put him on the inside for the next corner at the Tyre Warehouse sign, where Gore set the car sideways in rally style drifting and swept ahead of his rival, who just could not match the sideways antics of the nemesis. Gore pressed hard through the next three laps and opened up a sizable lead on Summerbell, who seemed to get serious with two laps remaining and closed the gap somewhat in the closing stages, but the damage had already been done and Gore crossed the line first to take the checkered flag, with Summerbell second and Peter Rae in third in his Mazda RX7.

Wet weather racing also took pace in the second Improved Production event, where Stephen Bansie used the four wheel drive advantage of his Tropical Blue Spring Water/Precision Alignment/Innovative Signs & Awnings Subaru Impreza WRX Sti Spec C and some good driving skills to run away with the victory in that class, with Dion "Babybomb" Gardner in the improved Autosource Mitsubishi Mirage RS in second and Sebastian Rae in third in a turbocharged West Med Pharmaceuticals Mitsubishi Mirage RS.

In the first Improved Production race it was 2007 Dover champion driver out of the Team Mobay Racing camp, Guy Fraser, who crossed the line ahead of Bansie to win that event, with Teddy Burton in a Mad prepared Honda Civic in third place.

Team Mobay Racing had a third driver on the top step of the podium when Gary Williams, starting from the back of the grid, won the first Thundersport race, with attrition getting the better of the early front runners, as Chris Campbell in a Team Mobay Racing prepared Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 4 suffered a heartbreak when on the final corner before the checkered flag he broke an axle and could not make it up the grade to the finish line. The saying that "racing builds character" was never more true than in this case, as the affable Campbell took it all in stride and returned to finish second to Summerbell in the final race of the day, the Cable & Wireless Broadband Thundersport event. For this race, it was Summerbell's turn to start from the back, and while campbell and peter rae battled for the lead early, the "king" was content to bide his time at the tail end of the field and pass only when it was safe, as he had been bumped by the slower car of heath causwell going into the Tyre Warehouse corner, damaging the left side of his rear bumper. campbell eventually powered past the hard cornering rae into first place, but was soon caught by Summerbell, who made a fantastic pass on the newcomer as he hesitated going over the infamous Pinky's Bluff, diving to the inside after exiting the previous corner with a lot of momentum and combining that speed with his cars astounding acceleration, he made the pass at such a critical area look like childs play, and was by in a flash, literally.

 

Congrats AMS on a great car.

 

awesome

 

Spoke with the Motor Sales/David Summerbell Camp:

The slide was not intentional, Under braking turning in the back of the car started to slide...

The drift was intentional to save the slide though

 

for later

 

Just as I thought

Eric

 

Summerbell/AMS combined? Bomboclaaaat!

 

Very nice, great driving! wish I was there. You might want to check out your turbo it sounded broke WOOOOO

 

Sick!

 

Trust me, it's a great feeling.

What makes it even better is the fact that TA1 has a lot left in store... we broke the track record (which we set at the last meet) by 1.3 seconds without resorting to using more power.

Those familiar with the specs of TA1 know that AMS usually lists two modes: Test (25psi) and Time Attack (30+psi). TA1 set the new track record at 24.5psi.

Thanks to some good R&D and great work by Justin tuning the new suspension, we are continuing on the path of further improvements to TA1.

Much respect to AMS for building such a nice car.


Stephen

 

Isn't that how everyone drives their Evo on wet roads?

 

Insane!

 

awesome

 

Exactly!!