Lewis Hamilton led Jenson Button to a McLaren one-two in a thrilling Canadian Grand Prix after a race-long five-car battle in Montreal.

Hamilton fought with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso throughout, but the Spaniard lost out to Button with 14 laps to go.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were also contenders for victory and finished fourth and fifth.

The result puts Hamilton in the championship lead, three points clear of Button, with Webber and Alonso next.

“It’s been a tremendous weekend, fantastic,” said Hamilton. “Things have just gone so well. Tremendous support from the fans and the team did an exceptional job. One of the toughest races of the year. These guys (Button and Alonso) did a fantastic job.

“Traffic was the opportunity for all of us today to get past the guy in front and I capitalised on that.”

The race victory turned on tyre strategy, and a couple of key incidents between Hamilton and Alonso.

Hamilton put himself in a position to win when he passed Alonso on lap 15 while the two were harrying Sebastien Buemi for the lead.

The Swiss Toro Rosso driver had found himself at the head of the field as the differing tyre choices of the main contenders played out in the opening laps.

Alonso got caught on the outside of Buemi going into the hairpin and Hamilton was able to slingshot past him on the long straight down to the final chicane, where Buemi pitted from in front of them, promoting Hamilton into the lead.

But Hamilton could not shake off Alonso and when the McLaren pitted again on lap 26, rejoining in third behind Webber, the Ferrari resumed the lead.

Alonso was due in to the pits on lap 28 for tyres and a fastest lap on lap 27 put him on target to re-pass the McLaren.

But the Ferrari got held up behind a backmarker – Hispania’s Karun Chandhok – and Alonso ended up rejoining behind the McLaren.

At this point, Webber was in the lead, but still needing to pit to change to the softer option tyres, which he had not yet used, with Hamilton, Alonso, Button and Vettel behind him all trying to get to the end on their harder prime tyres.

The Australian pulled out a lead of 11.8 seconds by lap 36, but then his tyres began to go off and Hamilton and Alonso, still circulating nose to tail, began to close in again. Button, with Vettel on his tail, was about four seconds further back.

Hamilton and Alonso caught Webber on lap 48 and Hamilton took the lead into Turn One at the start of lap 50.

Webber pitted for his final set of tyres at the end of the lap, dropping to fifth, and Alonso began to drop away from Hamilton and fall into Button’s clutches.

Another delay behind Chandhok gave Button the chance to take second place into Turn Eight on lap 56. Initially, the two men began to close on Hamilton, but the 2008 world champion put in a couple of quick laps with 10 of the 70 laps to go to deter them from getting any closer.

Alonso was less than a second behind Button for the rest of the race but was unable to pass.

“This was a very difficult type of race because the tyres are so important,” said reigning world champion Button. “You couldn’t drive flat out on the prime every lap, you still had to look after the tyres.

“It was exciting and great to be up at the front and watching the fight between these two (Hamilton and Alonso) was also fun. It was a great race, with different strategies, and it’s made for a hell of a race.”

Alonso added: “It was a good day for us, the car was very competitive and I think we had a good opportunity to win .

“We overtook Lewis thanks to a fantastic pit stop but then lost the position with some traffic. We lost another position to Jenson in the last laps with more traffic, so we lost 10 points.

“When Buemi stopped I lost 2.5secs passing another car and I exited the pits 0.5secs behind Lewis, it was a race decided by small details.

“We are still in the championship but we are moving in the right direction and we are back in the fight.”
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso

Hamilton had led the early laps from pole position but his option tyres began to go off after four or five laps and, with Vettel climbing all over the back of him, he pitted on lap seven.

Alonso came in at the same time and a slow pit stop and getaway by Hamilton and McLaren meant the Ferrari was closing fast as Hamilton accelerated away.

The two went side by side down the pit lane and Alonso managed to sneak ahead.

The Red Bulls assumed first and second positions but they, too, started to run into problems with the harder, prime tyre and they had to pit five laps later.

Webber came in first, and fitted the prime tyre, with Vettel following him a lap later and going for the option.

That put Buemi into the lead, with Alonso and Hamilton closing fast.

Buemi drove a strong race to finish eighth behind the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Robert Kubica’s Renault.

Rosberg’s team-mate Michael Schumacher and the Force Indias of Vitantonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil were ninth and 10th in the final points positions.

Sutil passed Michael Schumacher for that position at the final corner, depriving the German legend of a point at the end of a poor weekend.

And Felipe Massa was given a 20-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane which dropped him two places in the result to 17th

share/save

share/save

Under less than ideal conditions, the St Lucia Motocross Association concluded its final race of the 2009 season on Sunday.

It was a very muddy race which despite the rain and Carnival fever, brought out some 200 persons to view the Teams—Club “Moon Martinique” and Team Moto X fight it out. The riders went to see who would be the “Carnival Champion” in both classes while battling for points towards the overall 2009 Championship.

Making a comeback to racing was Kevin Elcock. He showed he can still be on top after capturing the number one spot from the reigning 2008 Carnival Champ, Daren Rosemond.

In class-B, last year’s Carnival Champ, Carlan Mitchell, did not regain his title due to an injury sustained while racing , which made for interesting duel between Keran Rosemond, Kalvin Kahain and Olson François. In the end, Keran Rosemond came out on top as the B-class Carnival Champion for 2009.

The St Lucia Motocross Association thanked all supporters as listed below and gave special mention to the Customs Department for making the overall transition of their affiliate Club out of Martinique a smooth one.

The Club will put on its own Sports Awards in December as mandated by the Ministry of Youth & Sports to present to all the 2009 overall Champions. Meanwhile, the Association will be preparing itself to put on the first ever Super moto race in September.

Supporters of the St Lucia Motocross Association: SALCO Ltd, Suzuki-Prestige Auto Imports Holdings, CJ Touring, RG Quarry, WLB-CLIMAX, Paramount Holding Ltd, Come to me Tire Service, Food Express-Monster Energy Drink, Minister Guy Joseph, Jn Marie & Sons, SMJ Beverages, Peter & Company Ltd, Just Tires, Rendezvous Resort, John Tires & More, STAR Publishing Company, Cock Poil, The VOICE, The ICE Factory, The Mirror, HTS Sports, ROCKSTAR, The Driver By, The Rumble, Motorcycle Solutions, Julies Tree Trimming, The Royal St Lucia Police Force, St Lucia Fire Service, Gary Devaux, The Trophy Centre, Excel Signs, All Flag Persons, Members, Volunteers, NEMO, St Lucia Solid Waste, Ministry of Youth & Sport, Customs and the general public.

share/save

After last weekend’s impressive showdown at the Caribbean Karting Carnival international race meet, there seems to be no turning back for the Jamaican karters who dominated the event.

With the exception of the ICC Shifter and Rotax Jr Classes, the Jamaicans won most of the races. The three most impressive drivers were Jamaica’s Mario Mair in the Rotax Masters Class and the Canadian duo of Jesus Rios, Rotax Jr Class, and Fritz Leesmann in the ICC Shifter Class. They won convincingly.

In the other classes, the races were very competitive, especially in the Rotax Mini-Max and Comer 80cc events. There were several spills and minor mishaps on the track, which in some instances denied the race leaders the opportunity of taking the chequered flag.

"I love the track and the Jamaican people. The hospitality was very great, but among the karters I was impressed with were Joshua Sirgany, Thomas Issa, Fraser McConnell and Richard Lechler, said 13-year-old Pietro Fittipaldi Da Cruz, while getting ready to leave the island Thursday morning. He competed in the Rotax Mini-Max Class.

Fittipaldi Da Cruz and his sibling Enzo were among 21 overseas drivers who participated at the meet. Both are the grandsons of former World Formula One Champion, Emerson Fittipaldi of Brazil. In spite of their talent, the Jamaicans turned out to be more than a handful for them.

President of the Jamaica Karting Association, Dave Wong, was overwhelmed.

"It was a fantastic race meet, it really went well. The support was good, but the local guys stepped up their game and surprised the fans. Everybody was happy and the foreigners left here with high about our facilities, so we are looking for a bigger event in 2010.

One parent, Samuel Law, described it as a great victory for Jamaica. While singling out Joshua Sirgany as one of the top drivers, it was Richard Lecler who left the more than 900 fans stunned with his surprise performance.

He said Thomas Issa, Fraser McConnell and Williams Myers took things to another level in the Rotax Mini-Max Class.

President of the Jamaica Millennium Motoring Club, Errol Anderson, said the rivalry goes to show how far off the Jamaicans are from some of these world-rated drivers.

share/save

At the helm of the S9 Subaru Impreza WRC, Meeke fought hard in the initial stages of the first day and then was able to maintain his lead as he finished with a provisional time of 55 minutes 11.84 seconds.
With the hard part over, he gave a the crowd a taste of the much loved ‘donut’ at the Super Special Stage held at the Bushy Park Racing Circuit in St. Philip.
As he whipped the S9 around at different section of the track the crowd gave a resounding sound of approval for what has been an excellent display of driving talent over the weekend.
First his battle with Roger Skeete which Meeke said that he has never had to push so hard consistently for such a long period of time in a rally to keep up.
Though he was here to have fun and enjoy himself, the competitive edge of Meeke comes out as soon as he puts on the helmet and all the fun and games disappears until he crosses the finish line.
Speaking after the provisional results were published later in the evening on Sunday, Meeke said he was very happy to win.
“It is an incredible rally and the enthusiasm is spectacular”.
One thing he said he has noticed from last year was that there was even more spectators out there than last year and it is an incredible atmosphere.
After a clutch problem the weekend before the rally, Meeke said that the car worked fantastic during the Rally, “Maybe it is not as fast in a straight line but we tried to keep the throttle down around the corners and that may have been the difference”.
He now flies off for the next round of the IRC championships in Belgium which he currently leads.
Though he did not know if he was going to do this year’s rally until two weeks before, Meeke said he loves this place (Barbados) and loves coming back so he has not ruled out coming back next year.
Second place went to Paul Bird and Ian Windress in the Ford Focus WRC07. This pair was just over 16 second off the winners.
Paul Bourne and Stuart Maloney overcame suspension problems on the first day to finish third but were about one minute and 13 seconds off the pace set by Meeke.
Kevin Procter and Dave Bellerby were fourth in the S7 Subaru Impreza WRC, while Roger Hill and Graham Manning rounded off the top five finishers in the gruelling rally which claimed about 20 crews.
Neil Armstrong and Barry Ward won Modified 8A in the Mitsubishi Evolution 6.
The highest place two wheel drive crew was Jonathan Still and Heath Hazel in the BMW M3, while 10th place finishers Geoffrey Noel and Kreigg Yearwood won Production 4.
Ian Warren and Robert Warren in the Suzuki Swift finished just behind Still after a mishap cost them a top 10 finish. However, Warren still carried of Super Modified 10 group honours.
An intense battle for Super Modified 9, between Josh Read and Mark Jordan and James Betts and Josh Delmas ended with only four second separating the two.
It was Read in the Toyota Starlet that won the group.

share/save

Winning the JA1 class in the Vision Express Suzuki Swift GTi was Warren Walford in a best time of 3.06.197, with Sean McDonald’s Xtreme Auto Toyota Starlet in second place in 3.10.425.

The hotly contested JA2 class saw Team Mobay Racing’s James “Doc” Marsh in his immaculate Toyota Corolla FX posting a scorching time of 2.39.741 to put perennial class nemesis Pernell Fitz-Coy in a similar car sponsored by Oxy Clean/Anya’s Maternity & Newborn Plus in second place on his only run of the day, as he was busy with admission control for most of the day but yielded to the pull of participating in the most exciting tarmac sprint of the season, as most competitors were eager to lay claim to the crystal and acrylic trophies up for grabs at the event. Third place was newcomer to the Ironshore circuit Andrew Harrison in the Shur Power Toyota Starlet, with impressive acceleration runs on the front straight to the joy of the fans.

The JA3 class saw the best performance to date from Leroy “Ice” Spence in his Selective Auto Parts Honda CRX. He not only claimed the top prize in this class but won the rain affected championship 3 lap run as well, claiming the huge crystal trophy that goes along with it as well as a basket of goodies from Castrol lubricants/Tropical Battery.

Second in class was Dion Gardner in the Autosource Mitsubishi Mirage RS posting a 2.44.393 on his one and only run before an unfortunate mishap on his determined second run when a collision occurred between himself and Kirk Edwards’ Toyota Corolla Levin which was negotiating the final turn of his second lap. Both competitors received only minor injuries and were shaken, but both cars sustained enough damage to put them out for the rest of the day. Third in class was Gordon McDowell in the Team Mack Attack Hyundai Coupe who was determined not to lose the “Flickers” nickname that he has had over the years, as repeated attempts at execution of the Scandinavian style of turning the vehicle yielded marginal results at best.

The JA4 class was again dominated by Thomas Hall in the Xsomo International Toyota Starlet Gt turbo, who completed the 1st two lap run in just 2.42.08 to put Team Browns Town’s Orville “Piggy” Johnson in his turbocharged Toyota Tercel in second at 2.53.101.

Richard Rerrie in the Puma/1-888-Wrecker/KIG/Automotive Art/Cal Doors/Leroy’s Auto Glass Subaru Impreza WRX won the JA8 class with a time of  2.28.429 over Junior Barnes who was making his debut in the Bay Waata Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 9, but suffered damage to his gearbox on his 3rd run.

The JC1 class had five competitors going head to head, with Ivan “The Terrible” lee in a supercharged Toyota Corolla SR5 out of the Challenger garage camp claiming the top spot with a 2.49.343, Ian Edwards in the Team Rip It Mazda in second at 3.00.144 and Mandeville’s Marcus Barnes in another turbo charged Toyota Corolla SR5 surprising himself with a third place finish after being more interested in sliding sideways than posting a fast time to the delight of the large crowd.

Douglas “Hollywood” Gore won the JC2 class and in so doing posted the fastest time of the day, a quick 2.24.660 achieved on his 3rd and final run, as he shifted the gears in emphatic fashion up and down the front straight. Newcomer to sprints Ian Wright in the ex Richard Rerrie project Magnum, a turbo charged 4wd Mitsubishi Colt RS was second in class having posted a 2.50.339 on his 3rd run.

Patrick Chambers being the only competitor in the JN2 class walked away with the trophy after posting a 3.08.688 time.

The JN8 class was won by event sponsor Macklin Peterkin in the Ward’s Power Tools/Kinn’s Auto Parts Subaru Impreza WRX Sti spec C, posting a time of 2.43.876 on his first run with Salvador Solis in the Xsomo/Chrysalis Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution II in second and 17 year old Cornwall College student Dominic Peterkin, son of Macklin, third in a time of 2.52.738.

First in the rain affected 3 lap championship run as mentioned above was Leroy Spence, with Richard Rerrie in 2nd and Andrew Harrison in third. The event closed with a dexterity display by Marcus Barnes, Maurice Whittingham and Ian Wright that whipped the crowd into a frenzy, with prize giving following immediately after at the start/finish line.

share/save

For those of you who don’t follow Formula One motor racing, F1 added it’s first ever black driver, Lewis Hamilton from Britain. You might be wondering, why is this worthy of note on Windies Sports? His paternal grandparents are from Grenada! Not only that, he’s so good that they’ve hailed him as the Tiger Woods of Formula One.His debut race he finished third, only the fourteenth driver to finish on the podium on his debut. Even more astounding, he recently eclipsed Bruce McLaren to become the youngest driver ever to lead the world championship. Read more about him here.

share/save

Sheldon Bissessar earned the top world record for the 1/4mile with an ET of 6.45 seconds at Rockingham Dragway, Rockingham, North Carolina. He made history with the fastest time racing with gas and nitrous using a converter instead of a clutch engaged transmission. Read more here

share/save

The Shifter Class proved unforgettable with star racers Gerard Carrington (18), John Tannous (33), Vernon ‘Chicky’ Martin Shameel Mohammed (7) and Ryan Peyrau. Ryan who made the highlight of the race after battling with a couple of spins, managed to take victory.

The last race ended with Brandon Steele (134) who maneuvered his way through and took victory from Ravi Singh (75) who initially had the lead from the start of the race. Get the details here

Powered by ScribeFire.

share/save

McCONNEY/MOSELEY WIN JUNE SAFARI

Sunday, June 10 was the day Navigator Tyrone Moseley and driver Philip McConney were named the winners of the Esso Courtesy Garage 50th Anniversary June Safari of Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC)

The overall results were:

1st Philip McConney/Tyrone Moseley (Suzuki Vitara), 2152 penalties
2nd Roger Hill/Geoffrey Goddard (Nassco Ltd Toyota Hilux), 2425 penalties
3rd Andrew Mallalieu/Sean Gill (Simpson Motors/The Boatyard Isuzu D-Max), 2485 penalties
4th Ian Warren/Robert Warren (Simpson Motors Isuzu Pickup), 2943 penalties
5th Derek Gill/Andrew Croney (Insurance Solutions Inc Mitsubishi Pajero), 3240 penalties
6th Paul Marshall/Ricky Holder (Mitsubishi L200), 3353 penalties
7th Brett Barber/Warrick Eastmond (Autozone Inc/Biddy’s Information Centre Daihatsu Feroza), 3636 penalties
8th Barry Gale/Neil Barnard (Mitsubishi L200), 3672 penalties
9th John Sealy/Lisa Roett (Land Rover Defender), 3771 penalties
10th Doug Armstrong/Warren Gollop (Armag/Hankook Tyres Toyota Land Cruiser), 3892 penalties

Powered by ScribeFire.

share/save