March Madness for BADD
The Barbados Association of Dragsters and Drifters (BADD) has a busy March this year. A small crew accompanied their timing equipment to St. Vincent for the “Induction” event on the weekend of March 4th and 5th – an historic side by side drag racing event on the recently-decommissioned E T Joshua Airport runway.
The following weekend, BADD’s equipment, fresh off the Admiral Bay vessel from St. Vincent, was used at Bushy Park’s track day. BADD members, as well as members of the public came out in their numbers to experience the thrill of dragging for themselves. The club’s last event was held at Bushy Park in October last year and members used the track day as an opportunity to shake off some of the dust that had settled since then.
The weekend, March 26th, will be the season opener for BADD. Dubbed “Launch Control”, this event is set to be one of the biggest events since the club’s return to the redeveloped Bushy Park racing circuit. Chairman Jason Downey noted “The guys have been waiting a while to get back on the track. Lower costs of racing licenses this year has seen a surge in new faces, some of whom have been bitten by the bug from the tack day earlier this month”.
“We have two guys who are determined to break Roger Mayers’ existing 1/8 mile time of 6.598 seconds. Dan Johnson driving a unique electric-powered Westfield known locally as the “MegaWatt” came within 0.028 of a second in October last year, on his debut event. The other team looking to overthrow Mayers is headed by Robert Bishop in a fully race-prepared Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7.”
The sharp end of the times will also be joined by current champion Jeremy “Silent” Greenidge in his Evo-powered Mitsubishi Mirage, Matthew “DMZ” Forde and Barry Gilkes, both in Mitsubishi Evo 3’s, Corey Stanford in a Toyota Corolla and Graeme Finlayson in a bike-engined Westfield. Competition in the front-wheel-drive category will also be keen with Suzuki Swifts driven by Kevin Griffith and Shawn “Short Man” Eversley trying to hold off the Honda Civic of Anthony Mayers.
The event is being shared with Bushy Park Motorsports Inc (BPMSI), and there are circuit drivers who also partake in drag racing. Regulars like Tremaine Forde-Catwell, Andre Walcott, Adrian Bailey and Paul St. Hill are also expected to be doing double-duty.
Admission to spectators starts at $20. Gates open at 8am. The drag racing portion of the day kicks off at 11am with a practice session, followed by qualifying at 2pm, and eliminations and grudge matches from 4pm to 6pm.