Young Rae vows fierce fight

DRIVER Sebastian Rae is hoping to put up a serious challenge against his more experienced rivals at Monday's Heroes of Speed Race-Day fixture at the Dover Raceway in St Ann.

Rae, 28, who will be driving the Jamaica Automobile Association-sponsored turbo-charged '97 Mitsubishi Mirage, is scheduled to compete in the Modified Production Class two (MP 2); Improved Production 33 (IP 33) and; Thundersport Open Class categories.

"This is new territory for us. The Mirage has a brand new engine that we just built. It is a racing engine with racing computer, and so on. And, I am hoping that I will be competitive," he said.

Rae is expected to be up against seasoned drivers such as Andre Anderson, Peter Jaggon and Tedroy 'Teddy' Burton, who set a new MP 2 lap record at last year's meet; and, Heath Causwell and Kyle Gregg in the IP 33 class. Alan Chen will also compete in both classes, while Rae will also face champion drivers such as David Summerbell Jr and Doug Gore in the Thundersport open class.

Reliability key

"I want the car to be reliable all day so I can finish the race and then we take it from there," the two-time single-seater champion said.

Rae, nephew of champion driver, Peter 'Zoom Zoom' Rae, has been competing since age four on dirt bikes before graduating to go-karts. He joined Dover in 2003.

Duane Ellis, general manager at the Jamaica Automobile Association, said he expected Rae to perform creditably at Monday's meet.

"He has been gradually improving each time he goes on the track, therefore, we expect him to continue to perform well," Ellis said.