Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
A section of the record crowd in attendance at the Easter Monday race meet held at Dover circuit in St Ann.

Glenroy Sinclair, Assignment Coordinator

Thousands of motorsport fans crammed the grandstand, hillside and roof tops at the pit area, screaming their heads off at the Easter Monday Dover race meet.

"It was a record-breaking meet in terms of attendance," comments Dean Corrodus, who is a member of the Jamaica Race Drivers Club (JRDC).

According to him, it could be the biggest crowd to ever grace the Dover circuit. The JRDC members had provided more parking area for the spectators, but by 1:00 p.m. on raceday, the parking areas were overflowing and vehicles had to be parked along the roadway leading to the main road.

"After the meet, there was a massive traffic jam. Right now, we are in the process of acquiring more lands for parking," reports Corrodus.

A diehard motorsport fan who identified himself as 'Bowlas' from Linstead, St Catherine, said it was the biggest crowd he has ever seen at Dover in his more than 15 years of watching races at the island's premier circuit racing course.

"Although it was an exciting meet, we spectators are getting a bit bored because every race meet is the same drivers and once you see people like Doug Gore, Peter 'Bull' Thompson, David Summerbell in a race, you know what to expect. We need to see some fresh faces," said 'Bowlas'.

Guys at the top

In response to that, president of the JRDC, Hilary Jardine, explains that these are the guys at the top, just like Lewis Hamilton on the international stage.

"In May 1998, we had an international meet which involved five countries and 23 competitors and we did not have the crowd that we saw on Monday. This is the biggest crowd," says Jardine.

The meet which was dubbed the 'Carnival of Speed' Easter race meet, sponsored by Cable and Wireless Jamaica, had the spectators sitting on the edge of their seats and cheering on their favourite racing driver.

Tedroy 'Teddy' Burton and his new look Honda Civic returned in style. He registered a hat-trick of wins. Peter 'Bull' Thompson, although he did not win a race, lived up to his name by being an aggressive competitor.

Like Thompson, most of the top drivers suffered again from mechanical problems, which caused some races to be run jointly. Drivers such as Peter Jargon, Donovan Senior in the IP45 class and Gary Williams had a great meet. Senior, in particular, was making his debut and he won two races.