Campbell joins Suzuki Challenge Series Swift Cup

Posted on April 25th, 2017.

Justin Campbell is Team Rock Hard Cement’s new signing, having won a Drive-Off at Bushy Park Barbados earlier this month. He will line up on the Swift Cup grid when the third Suzuki Challenge Series kicks off at the John ‘Tiny’ Harrison Memorial Raceday (May 6/7) at the St Philip facility.

Campbell becomes the 28th driver from six regional territories to contest the Swift Cup, which has attracted drivers from Guadeloupe, Guyana, Jamaica, Martinique and Trinidad & Tobago to take on the island’s home-grown talent. With identical Suzuki Swift Sports, prepared by a core team of mechanics, this ‘arrive and drive’ series has produced some epic door handle to-door handle racing in the 48 races run over the past two years.

The statistics tell the story of a competitive and hard-fought category: 11 drivers have won races, a further 11 have claimed podium finishes, while pole positions in timed Qualifying and fastest laps have been shared between six and 13 drivers respectively. In 2015/16, David Summerbell Jnr (Jamaica) won the Summer Series, beating T&T’s Ryan Peyrau, but Peyrau prevailed in the Winter Cup, eight wins to Summerbell’s seven for the year landing the Overall title.

In 2016/17, Ryan Wood’s six wins in the Summer Series races gave him a first title and, despite Peyrau winning four of six Winter Cup races to claim back-to-back titles, he again missed out on the Overall Championship. ‘Woody’ is now the ‘winningest’ Swift Cup racer with 13, leading Peyrau (12) and Summerbell (7). Wood and Peyrau also top the tables for pole positions (Peyrau – 7) and fastest laps (Wood – 10), while Jason Parkinson (16) and Josh Read (10) lead the table for podium finishes in second or third place, testament to their determination to eventually win a Swift Cup race, which ‘Parky’ has now done three times and Read once.

Since the launch of the Suzuki Challenge Series, the Swift Cup has run in parallel with the SR3 Cup for Suzuki-powered Radical SR3 RS open-topped sports cars, the fastest racing category in the region. In the past two years, the SR3 Cup has attracted 24 drivers from Guyana, Jamaica, St Vincent & The Grenadines, T&T in the Caribbean, as well as the UK and the United States for the annual Radical International.

Ten drivers have won races, a further four have claimed at least one podium finish, while pole positions in timed Qualifying and fastest laps have been shared between six and eight drivers respectively. In 2015/16, Sean Maloney won both the Summer Series and Winter Cup, clocking up 10 wins and claiming the Overall Championship. As newcomers joined the series in 2016/17, however, the more experienced Radical racers became less dominant; in his first season of circuit racing, Sol Esuf won the Summer Series, with two wins and five podium finishes and, although Guyana’s Kristian Jeffrey nailed the Winter Cup with four wins, Esuf had done enough to become the second Overall Champion. Of the 10 winners, Sean Maloney tops the list with 13, ahead of brothers Stuart (8) and Mark (7). Sean, Mark and Sol Esuf have each claimed four pole positions, while Mark has the most fastest laps (16) to his credit and leads the table for podium finishes in second or third place, with an impressive 21.

The John ‘Tiny’ Harrison Memorial Raceday (May 6/7) is organised by Bushy Park Motor Sports Inc (BPMSI). In addition to the opening round of the 2017 Suzuki Challenge Series, the weekend will include round two of the 2017 BPMSI Championship and action on the drag strip as the Barbados Association of Dragsters & Drifters (BADD) presents Launch Control, round 2. Competitors from both Clubs will enjoy the chance for some last-minute testing at the BPCI Open Track Day next Saturday, April 29, with track time starting at 11.00am and drag practice from 3.30pm.