Recently crowned Bushy Park overall lap record holder Stuart Williams, will lead a four man Barbados team to the opening round of the 2012 Seaboard Marine Caribbean Motor Racing Championship at the Dover Raceway in Jamaica. It will be Williams second outing to Dover, in 2011 he was the fastest of Barbados' three man CMRC team. "The Lotus developed some problems during the first race last year and we could not get it fixed in time for the second. Started at the back of the grid for the final race and were quite pleased to finish fourth, behind Mark & Doug Maloney who came in second and third respectively". Jamaica's David Summerbell Jr. won all three races in 2011 with Mark and Doug second and third in each race. On that occasion Team Barbados finished the meet trailing their hosts by just four points. They went on to take the lead after Round 2 and were eventually crowned Champion Country at the end of the Series. Barbados completed the double with Roger Mayers winning the the individual Champion Driver crown.
With the Maloneys and Mayers out of contention, Williams will be Barbados' lone entry in the CMRC Championship races. Acknowledging that it will be hard to beat Summerbell Jr. and some of the other Jamaican competitors at the Dover Raceway, he is nevertheless cautiously optimistic of his chances of finishing on the podium. "Our team has done a lot of work on the car since its last outing at Dover. Last time we did lap times in the 1:21's, we are confident that we can get down into the 1:20's this time around. Once we can do that consistently during the races we would have every chance of doing well".
Commenting on Williams being the lone entry, CMRC country representative, Kurt Seabra said "Stuart was very early in letting the Club (BARL) know that he was onboard and it is really great that he can make the tour. He will be competing in the CMRC races but he will have Kurt & Mark Thompson there as well. They will campaign in a revamped version of the Seaboard Marine GP2 which is merged with the Jamaica Race Drivers Club (JRDC) MP1/2 Classes.












In addition Terrance Ollivierre will be making his Dover debut on Honda CBR600-RR in the 'B' Class motorcycle races.
Of course we are disappointed that Mark (Maloney) is not yet ready, I know he is as well because the fans love him there. Doug is also out, which is another blow, but he told us last year that he would be touring a little less. The Maloney Racing teammates have given us four straight years of overseas representation, naturally we are upset when they are not there, but understand what it takes".
Seabra continued "Perhaps the most disappointing to us and the Jamaicans as well, is the fact that Roger (Mayers) will not be going to begin defending the title he won last year. Since we joined the Championship in 2008, for varying reasons Roger has not be able to make Round 1, so the fans at Dover have been thirsty to see him go head to head with Summerbell Jr. His Ford Focus is considered by many as the car to beat from Barbados so it generates a lot of hype wherever it goes. It all seems a bit unfair to Stuart because he is by far the most successful circuit racing driver in Barbados, and now the fastest one as well. I am fairly confident that Stuart and the Lotus will break away from the shadow of the Focus this year. They have done a lot of work and he is driving the stuffings out of it. I am looking forward to seeing him run at Dover".
Seabra indicated that in the end it boils down to who can afford to make these tours. "We continue to work on bringing the costs to the individual competitor down but we have a ways to go still, so costs remains the single most prohibitive factor to the guys touring. Seaboard Marine have been our beacon and backbone for the last four years and without them moving the cars around free of cost we would not have been able to get this far with the Series. Their interest in expanding the Series into other territories as well as being the title sponsor of the GP2 Series for the lower Group cars shows that they are committed to growing the sport from the bottom while catering to the highest Group".
Commenting on the recent furore over CMRC weight rule changes on certain forums Seabra said, "I know the feelings of our team, outside of that I am not sure what its all about, in the sense that each country representative would have voted based on the position proffered by their team members. In all fairness, the rule change should have happened earlier in the year giving all competitors every opportunity to benefit from them and maybe we have look to regulate that changes be done by a certain time". Was Team Barbados in favour of the change, " We are a part of a Series where the majority vote passes rules, sometimes it is in our favour, sometimes not. The fact is we have a Series where it is difficult to find two cars that are alike and that presents huge challenges in setting rules. Since 2008 we have been running to a common set of rules and that in itself is a major accomplishment".

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