By Neto Baptiste
As the Marsh Built camp prepares to take this weekend’s Drag-a-ddon event by storm at the North Sound Raceway, manager Neil “Geese” Francis is taking the Antigua and Barbuda Drag Racing Association (ABDRA) to task over what he describes as a “form of disrespect” to Ambassador Jason Marsh and his Marsh Built company.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo sports show, Francis said that despite Marsh’s successes on the international scene, the local body has never invited him to attend any of their events.
“I really sat down and thought about this invite and I was like, we shouldn’t really do the invite because of different reasons, but we are going to do it for other reasons. I think that the time this guy has been driving race cars and breaking records for maybe 18 or 20 years, and throughout all of the presidents in the ABDRA association, not one of them have ever invited him [to race in Antigua] and it took a private promoter to do it. It’s personal to me because I think it’s a form of disrespect to the highest level because he [Marsh] is the Viv Richards of drag racing for Antigua,” he said.
Marsh, who was named a Sports Ambassador by the government back in December of 2022, has competed in many international meets across the USA and the world with his cars winning a number of top awards.
The group will feature in a number of races over the two-day event and is hoping to put on a show for the Antiguan public.
“If you look back to the last 15 years, and you look from number one to the 10 fastest front-wheel drive cars, or sometimes even four-wheels and you would see them, but the only time you’ve ever seen a Caribbean flag is because of him. Around that time, no other Caribbean island has even gotten into that spot and he has done it year after year. At one time, if you looked at the top 10 cars on the east coast of the US, he was our number three and four out of the other top 10, he built those engines,” Francis said.
Francis highlighted that Marsh Built’s participation in the event has already benefited the sport here with two internationally renowned racing figures set to lend their expertise to the organisers.
“One of the guys who built the four-wheel drive system, he is coming today [8 February] because he was like, I really want to see this and Hub City, this is somebody who builds cars all over the world, he built this four-wheel drive system and he’s coming here. One of the guys who helped to prep the track is so excited because he’s heard people say from time to time, how Antigua is so nice and friendly so he’s coming as well, so all this means he is going to help prep the track for free and that is on behalf of Marsh Built,” he said.
Marsh Built will feature a number of cars at this weekend’s event while the vehicles will also be on show at a number of business across Antigua.