By Neto Baptiste
A total of 10 Antiguan cars, three funded by the Antigua and Barbuda Drag Racing Association (ABDRA), are currently in St Lucia as they gear up for that country’s Independence Drag 2024 event slated for this weekend at the Base, Vieux Fort.
Making the journey to represent Antigua and Barbuda in St Lucia is Orland Weekes with team Helter Skelta and Skelta 2; Karl Belizaire with Insanity, Jason “Cyacle” Thomas from Winskey & Friends, Niko Antonio from Mike Speed Garage and Mario Mack.
A director on the ABDRA executive and Acting Treasurer, Paul Ryan, said the governing body here is playing its part in exposing local talent to the rest of the region.
“We have selected three cars and funds … are not always available but we are sponsoring three cars to St Lucia for this event. There are other individuals who decided to go on their own and, actually, 10 cars left Antigua to participate in this event,” he said.
Ryan said the event, slated for February 24 and 25, could be the start of a long-lasting relationship between Antigua and Barbuda and St Lucia, and hinted that a regional meet could be in the making.
“Well, we’re looking to form a regional grouping and your buddy, Stan Richards, keeps talking about World Cup and we want to make Antigua the center for the Caribbean cup which is upcoming. We do have a chat group with all of the [Caribbean] presidents and vice presidents discussing this. St Lucia is our first stop and we’re looking at probably Grenada and we hope to probably hit Virgin Islands shortly,” he said.
The Vice President of the association, Brian Williams, said the synergy between Antigua and St Lucia has been brewing for some time now.
“They wanted to come to Legendary Drag in 2022 but without proper planning it wasn’t really possible so we started doing work, organising and getting them together from 2022 to make sure that they made it over for 2023, that their cars were up to standard with their safety features … which would be required for them to run in the classes they want to run,” the VP said.
Team Antigua and Barbuda were slated to leave for St Lucia on Wednesday.
