Need for Speed karting: Persaud, Mendonca, Tenpow and Mohamed sweep round one

The weather was not the only scorching thing this weekend as Jumbo Jet Events staged the first round of its Need for Speed Karting Championship at the 555 Speedway in Georgetown.

Jeremy Tenpow, Paige Mendonca, Zachary Persaud, and Asrudeen Mohamed were all successful in their bids to take early leads in their respective classes of the three-round championship.

Tenpow rode to three wins on the day, including the day’s champion rider in the SuperMoto Senior Class.

In the first heat, he left Andrew Jordan and Matthew Phang to squabble for second, while in the Pre-Final, Phang got the better of Jordan.

A joint second was awarded, and the points were shared between Elan Rahaman and Jordan due to an error with the flags in the final.

Menconda was another competitor on the day to rack up three wins and a champion driver of the day trophy in the Female Briggs Class. In the Heat, Pre-Final, and Final, Malicia Lawrence finished second ahead of Mickelly Rahaman.

Zachary Persaud was the ‘top dog’ in the Honda GX200 Class, sweeping the Heat, Pre-Final, and Final.

In the final, he withstood a momentary pressure from Nathan Rahaman midway through the 20-lap fixture and, in the end, comfortably crossed the line; Rahaman finished second, with Aqueel Edwards third.

In the earlier Pre-final, the result was the same, while the early-morning heat saw Edwards and Rahaman switch spots.

The largest class of the day was by far the Briggs and Stratton Senior Light class, which saw Calvin Ming sweep the Heat, Pre-Final, and Final. In the heat, it was Ming ahead of Steven Nobrega and Justin Tenpow, with Tenpow and Nobrega swapping places in the Pre-Final.

In the Final, Zachary Persaud moved onto the final step of the podium behind Nobrega and class champion driver Ming.

In the Briggs Senior Heavy, Ming was made to work for his win the final, pipping Mikhail Persaud to the line in a decision that had officials reviewing video cameras for over an hour due to the closeness of the finish.

In the end, Ming crossed the line a half a bumper ahead of Persaud with Tenpow, who held Ming off for most of the 20-lap fixture, finishing third. In the Pre-Final, it was Tenpow ahead of Ming and Persaud in that order, while in the earlier Heat, Ming took the win ahead of Persaud and Nobrega.

Another unchallenged competitor was Matthew Daby, who swept the Briggs Junior class en route to his champion driver award.

He won the Heat ahead of Adam Mohamed with debutant Amaya Mohamed third, while in the pre-final, he came home ahead of Zane Edwards and Adam Mohamed. The final featured the same order.

Perhaps the most anticipated class was the Cadet class, with future stars on show. And when the dust settled, it was Asrudeen Mohamed who had three commanding wins on the day. He converted from the pole all three times.

Mohamed picked up the win in the heat ahead of Hodges and Seejatan and went on to take the Pre-Final ahead of Seejatan and William Vieira. The final had Seejatan finishing behind Vieira and Mohamed, who also picked up the champion driver trophy.

In the Veteran class, it was Stanley Ming who won the heat with Brian Tenpow taking the Pre-final and final, demoting Ming to second on both occasions.

Ming won the champion driver class by virtue of the points. The Rookies had only John Mohamed.

In the opening heat of the IAME X30 125cc, Calvin Ming had the early lead before an opportune move from Tenpow turned a half chance into the lead, which held to the end; Benjamin Phang picked up third.

In the Pre-final, the top two remained unchanged with Denzel Hopkinson returning to the karting podium, while in the Final Justin Tenpow smashed the grid ahead of Ming and Phang, snagging the champion driver trophy.

Lashon Lewis made a clean sweep of the Supermoto Jnr class, with Troquille Sealy second and Joshua Holder third in the heat.

In the Pre-Final, the other two podium positions were flipped with Holder second and Sealy third while in the final Sealy finished ahead of Holder.

There were also two exhibition races for children six years and under with Senna Seejatan and Malya Daby both getting trophies.

The second round of the championship is billed for September 13 at the Leonora Stadium with the final round set for December 20 at a venue to be announced.

(Press Release from Jumbo Jet Events)

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