Nichola Beckford/Contributor

For an event billed as JDM versus Euro, the fact that it was American muscle that turned out to be the fastest overall at the first Drag Rivals for 2023 may have been lost on many. At the end of the three day event that began on January 27 and ran until January 29 at the Vernamfield Aerodrome, St Catherine, veteran drag racer Dean Shaw in his Chevrolet Camaro posted the fastest quarter mile time in the eight second range.

“We got the fastest time during eliminations on day two, and today on race day we tried to back it up with a faster time, but we had some fuelling issues. The car has been in hibernation for five years, and the bypass valves were just sticking so we tried to lean out the mixture a bit because of the amount of fuel, which turned out to be a backwards move on our part. So live and learn. We’ll be back. We’re going for the sevens at the next race meet,” said Shaw.

The 1969 Chevy Camaro is the quintessential American drag car with the intake for its massive supercharged 540 cubic inch V8 making an imposing statement just standing still. Once fired to life, it’s the exhaust note that takes over, sounding like nothing else at the event. After each smoky burnout, all watching would hold their breath as the car flew down the drag strip. A popular name in the sport, many were pleased to Shaw back in action.

“The highlight for me now are the young kids asking crazy questions, trying to figure stuff out and you’re trying to enlighten them. I’m seeing kids here that the last time I saw them was five years ago, and these are big men now,” said Shaw.

Shaw himself was just as ecstatic about the return of drag racing and had nothing but praise for the event.

“KenT Racing put on a stellar event. Drag Rivals was amazing. It’s the best that I’ve been to in Jamaica bar none. It’s well organised. He listens to the drivers. He actually participates overseas so he’s familiar with what the standard should be and he brings that experience back here so everyone can benefit from it,” said Shaw.

The last meet in December set the theme for this year’s season opener, so even beyond the JDM cars taking on their German rivals, there was the matter of the Tesla domination that took place. This time around it wasn’t as lucky as the hardcore drag races came out in their heavy numbers to make a point that pistons and petrol still are able to compete against electric vehicles.

Then there were the brand match-ups. With full-fledged drag cars around, the Europeans weren’t able to compete in the faster classes. This meant many of the races were Japanese versus Japanese. Not that it had substantial effect of the quality of the action. American muscle would rear its head again in the Pro Race 9 second class as the Nissan Skyline of Roland Crawford would go head-to-head with the Chevrolet Corvette of Gordon Chuck. Crawford brought the audience to their feet with a 9.241 second quarter mile pass. He would then go on to have another popular victory in the grudge match races.

“It feels good. We won the nine-second class today and we also won the grudge match against the Americans. The Americans came to the island and said we don’t have any fast cars, so Elite Performance had to show them,” said Crawford.

His Nissan Skyline R33 is nowhere what it appears to be, as only the body is Nissan. Underneath the bonnet is a fully-built 2JZ-GTE inline six cylinder from a Toyota Supra getting him a lot of flack online.

The remaining class winners were:

Pro Modified – 10 second

Robert Morrison

Pro Modified – 11 second

Seymour Anderson

Pro Street – 12 second

Andre Brown

Pro Street – 13 second

Alex Innis

Super Street – 14 second

Lorenzo Virgo

Super Street – 15 second

Ricardo Rhule

Street – 16 second

Romaine Senior