BADD set for Bushy Park meet
TREASURER of the Barbados Association of Dragsters and Drifters (BADD), Elridge Grant (second left) receiving the sponsors’ cheque from Mark Wilson, manager of the GoodYear Tyre Department during a press conference at Courtesy Garage last Wednesday. At left is BADD’s chairman Jason Downey, while Ian Proverbs, manager of Courtesy Car Rentals looks on. (Picture by Trevor Thorpe)
(Nation Newspaper 2016-03-26)
by TREVOR THORPE
DRIVERS OF THE Barbados Association of Dragsters and Drifters (BADD) will be exposed to several overseas events this season. That’s the word from new chairman Jason Downey as the association and sponsors GoodYear Tyres and Courtesy Car Rentals announced the opening event at Bushy Park on April 3.
“We are ready for our opening event and have been offered the opportunity by Bushy Park Motorsport Incorporated (BPMSI) to get in some practice on Saturday at the first day of the John “Tiny” Harrison Race Meet at Bushy Park and entries are open for the meet next week,” Downey added.
The new chairman said he was pleased to have GoodYear Tyres and Courtesy Car Rentals back with the club, pointing out that it was a meeting that started with the formation of the organisation under Harrison’s stewardship.
New equipment
Downey said BADD had acquired new equipment in time for the start of the season which would prevent a recurrence of the timing problems the club experienced at the last end of season event at Paragon.
“We have been able to secure new equipment from PortaTree and we should not have a recurrence of the issues that we had last year. It has been tested and we are happy with the hand-holding and guidance and information [from] the manufacturers of the equipment in the USA,” Downey added.
He added that several former drivers were returning to the sport this year, among them Tyrone “TeeMose” Moseley and Colin Goodman, and he expected that competition would be very tight over the five events scheduled.
Long-term plan
“Four of the five events will be contested at Bushy Park and the other at the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) base at Paragon and the club is in discussion with the BDF with a view of putting the short-term repairs in place, but it will be a long term plan and an expensive exercise, if we are to do drag racing at the facility,” he said.
“Some of the remedial work to the strip at Paragon may be done, but we cannot speak to that as yet as there are meetings planned to look at what is possible for us to do in the short term, as Paragon is not designed for drag racing, but drivers and fans seem to like it and you should listen to both and see what is possible.
“Discussion on the Paragon strip will occupy the attention of the club’s executive for most of the early part of the season,” Downey added.
GoodYear Tyres department manager Mark Wilson, before handing over a cheque to the chairman for the club, said GoodYear was pleased with the relationship with BADD. Spectators, he added, were also making good use of the various offers and specials given by the company.
‘We are proud’
“We have seen the fans using our Goodyear and the D-Mack tyres and that makes us happy, while we notice drivers choosing Goodyear tyres are winning and we are proud of that along with the association that GoodYear and Courtesy Car Rentals and Tropical Batteries have with the club,” Wilson said.
He said the level of participation in the general knowledge questions by fans at drag race meets was very satisfying to the company, but he pointed that the season was going to be a tough one, whether the event was at Bushy Park or at Paragon.
