Drag Wars Invasion has been declared the biggest gathering of foreign drag cars ever for a Caribbean event!!!

A large foreign contingent representing three countries made their presence felt at the second Drag Wars invitational drag racing event held on February 21st and 22nd to celebrate St. Lucia’s 31st independence anniversary.

Building on what was a very successful inaugural first Drag Wars event that was held last year on December 5th and 6th at the abandoned Beanfield airstrip in Vieux Fort but better known as The Base; Absolute Promotions outdid themselves and have been at the receiving end of numerous accolades from both competitors and government officials who attended the event.

Neil Beepat along with Autosport Promotional Ltd. of Trinidad went to great lengths to ensure that this was an event to top any that had been held in this part of the Caribbean to date and was probably one of the largest events of its kind that could come close to matching the annual Barbados rally which is the premier motor sporting event in the Caribbean. 

This time spectator comfort was of high importance and to this end temporary bleachers were installed on the North side of the track adjacent to the starting area that could accommodate at much as 1,500 people. These same bleachers were last used as temporary stands at the Beasejour Cricket Grounds for World Cup in 2007.

Additional smaller stands were also erected for those members of the public that had pit passes and for the VIP section. Consequently there was a very good view of the track available.

Once again the safety and security of both the racers and competitors met the highest standards and there were no incidents to mar what was an action packed weekend.

The event kicked off with the arrival of the Vincentian contingent that arrived at Port Vieux fort on Friday morning. A total of 15 cars were delivered to the track!

That afternoon the Trinidadians and a single Grenadian car (two other cars were already here from the last event) arrived at the port as well. 17 Trinidadian cars joined up with the other two Grenada cars that were already at the track.

This is gave a grand total of 34 foreign cars that took part in the event. Mervyn’s drag rail that everyone loved from the last event was on the island but did not take part. There were at least 20 local cars and a collection of motorcycles which included the crowd pleaser “Horsie” and the Marztech Racing Suzuki Hyabussa!

Even with the retirement of Horsie due to clutch problems on the Sunday, there were a huge number of distractions in the form of some incredible high horsepower cars that performed huge smokey burnouts and wowed the crowd as they dashed down the well prepped track.

Speaking of the track! The early prognosis was not so good due to a lack of traction caused by a dearth of rubber which is needed along with “Trackbite” to provide the necessary grip that the cars need. That’s where those long smokey burnouts prove their worth. Not only do they warm up the tires making them sticky, but they also lay down a thin layer of rubber and with multiple passes provides the necessary rubber for good traction.

By the end of Sunday the cars started running good times and the track only got better with some near record runs being recorded on the Monday. For the first time cars entered the 8 second bracket with two 8.9 second runs!! This is a staggering achievement and matched Horsies run on his bike last event.

The Trinidadian’s dominated the event but several of the Grenada and St. Vincent cars were also very impressive! Once again Neils drag Supra with small block V8 ran the best time for any St. Lucia car! That his car even competed at all was just short of a miracle. Just days before the event Neil during a practice run experienced a major engine failure. A new engine was quickly ordered and was expected to arrive in St. Lucia on the Thursday, however the shippers did not come through and the engine got stuck somewhere in the US. Mervyn the cars builder, being stuck between a rock and a hard place pieced an engine together out of three broken ones and the cobbled together engine held up well throughout the event with the car laying down a personal best of 9.6 seconds!!

Neils car was the first St. Lucian car to do 10 seconds and in the same day managed 9’s!!! This is a car to look out for in the future and an 8 second run is very possible. Hopefully this has answered some of the Toyota fanatics negativity that it was sacrilege to remove the venerable 2JZ engine and install a small block American V8.

There were a number of memorable moments, the first was a 20 seconds of silence for the founder of drag racing in St. Lucia, Mr. Vivian Molinaro that passed away last year. There is hope that if The Base can be secured as a permanent racing facility that it will be named in his memory.

There was also a march past of all of the vehicles that were taking part in the event, they ran slowly down the track and then looped back around to pass close in front of the crowd so they could all get a good look. A few stopped and did a quick burn out to the roars of approval from the assembled multitude.

What was seen in abundance is the “Testicular Fortitude” that the racers displayed whilst hurtling down the track at break neck speeds. The acceleration of some of these vehicles has to be seen to be believed and the wild gyrations some cars made as they scrambled for traction taxed the skill of the drivers and riveted the spectators in their tracks!!

As the event came to a close appearances were made by several government ministers including Tourism minster Mr. Allen Chastanet and the minster of communications and Works the honorable Guy Joseph. MC Russell Lake grabbed Mr. Joseph and involved him in the prize giving ceremony! Mr. Joseph shared his enthusiasm for the sport by running his large American Pickup down the track to the grand amusement of everyone.

Prizes were given for the various brackets from 16 seconds down to an open class which was 9 seconds and faster. Medals were given for second and third place in each bracket and a trophy for the winners of each class.

Once the racing was over with, there were a number “Grudge Matches” where various competitors paired up to see who would come out on top. Unfortunately a brief rain shower (the only one for the entire weekend) wet the track and stopped the racing. This was the time the crowd decided was right for leaving and the stands quickly emptied. It was difficult to tell how large the attendance was without seeing the ticket sales, but there had to be at least 5,000 people there on both days!

So hats off to the promoters for a extremely well run event. There is talk that the next will be held in September and we can all look forward to this