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 Dover - The Early years and the Moodie factor

This year Dover Raceways celebrates its tenth anniversary of motor racing. From humble beginings as a gravel surfaced autocross track in the backyard of racer and businessman Alfred Chen's Dover, St. Ann farm, the circuit stands today as the English speaking Caribbean's only dedicated race circuit.. Under the aegis of  race promoters Motorsport Jamaica (MSJ), the inaugural event was staged in December 1987 and a full championship season launched in the following year. 

The first race was actually conducted on a relatively loose rubbley 40 feet wide, 1.6 mile circuit, that saw many competitors losing their headlights, but the significance was never lost, circuit auto racing had found a new home after a hiatus of  over a decade. 

The new facilities attracted old legends and not so legends and new aspirants alike. Fans flocked to the track in droves even though the accommodations were relatively primitive, with little in the way of shelter or seating. The loose rough surface initially didn't cater to finely honed circuit cars and neither were these available. Most machines were either tuned or standard road cars or mothballed modified machines from the bygone heydays of Vernam Field. Eventually, for the most part, circuit racers and their machines kind of grew up together. Competition was good and healthy in the early meets with bulging grids and a wide assortment of cars. The new unproven circuit encouraged experimentation, with everyone trying different approaches in an effort to find the circuits secret to speed. As seasoned long time campaigner tried to get their old groove back a flood of newcomers continually add drama and suspense to the results. As things settled down a patterns started to emerge and this included the tumultuous aspect of Dover's legacy, the wars of egos that was as much a part of the racing as that on the track.

The earliest of these challenges centred around the first champion - Peter Moodie and this Castrol/Falken sponsored racing team. Moodie was certainly the biggest name to adopt the new facilities and its legitimacy certainly owed something to him. All this was with good reasons, his was a consumately professional outfit. Along with his brothers Mark and Clinton "Pinky" McGann, the progeny of one of the '70's more prolific auto racing teams, they surviving the transition from Vernam Field's more or less as a working racing team, competing in drag racing and autocrosses as well as campaigning overseas.  Peter's prowess and legend as a driver and racecar builder, a stock of proven autocross cars and his calculated disciplined approached lifted his team clearly above the rest of the field. In the first year the team campaigned a Standard Opel Corsa, a pair of Modified Corsas, the hybrid "Wha Dat" and a highly modified rotary powered Mazda 313 "the Bomb", and easily dominated the race results.  At the end of the season Peter won 6 of the nine championship classes and copped the enviable Driver's Championship title.  Pinky won one of the other few championships up for grabs.

Moodie's run was not exclusively without challenge but for the most part he dominated the racing landscape in a conspicuous enough manner to attract considerable controversy, as the Bomb methodically pulled out half lap victories over the rest of the field. Complaints rose about evening the competition for the sake of the sport.  This was stoutly resisted, friction among the various camps created a tense, even combative atmosphere. This was not good for the sport but the onus was on the rest of the field to catch up, and this they inexorably did. Towards the end of the first season chinks started appearing in the Team Castrol/Falken armour. The first outstanding challenge came from newcomer to the sport Robert Moysten fielding a Datsun 510. The well sorted car created an upset in the early part of the championship sweeping several classes in a dramatic debut. But Moyston was never able to repeat this show, Moodie counter-attacked, upping the ante in short order finding new solutions to the traction problems facing his mighty Bomb and rolled over the competition once again.  Moysten did however manage to take away some points from Pinky in the Group 2 Modified class when reliability wasn't a problem.
 
Mike Lewis was yet another popular challenger building up pace and reliability through the season as he tried various configurations in his yellow Ford Escort, he was eventually able to thwart the Castrol Opel's romp in the Group 3 and Thundersport 1 classes and even challenge the Bomb in the Thundersport event. After the first season he emerged the most popular underdog. 

Autocross champion and legend Colin Wittingham too made a brief but impressive showing, challenging the Bomb in a few races and showing promise though this was really Witties' last hurrah as he soon retired the famous Red Stripe Rotary RX3 Wagon for medical reasons. 

Chris Issa emerged from the standard class, and in a rented ride in one of the '70's legendary machine - the John Robinson-built BDA Escort, tested the Bomb in one climactic race that coincided with the Bomb's first DNF. 

For the sixth meet of the year the full circuit was paved and slick racing tyres allowed for racing in the modified classes. 

At the end of the season Moodie announced his retirement, after repeated confrontations with fellow competitors and the management of MSJ. Many competitors breathed a sigh of relief, fully aware that Moodie casted a long shadow and his brother, Pinky, was still going to be competing. Spectators had an opportunity to rally around new champs as the jostling for position for the many championships left vacant by Moodie fired a new excitement. 

Its arguable but fairly safe to say that the tremendous momentum of Dover's first season was fired by the tremendous rivalries and contention provoked by Moodie and his team. His professionalism forced other competitors to set higher standards for themselves in their effort to beat him. Many even adopted his methodology while some tried to exceed it. This part of his legacy is undeniable. He also kept the MSJ management on their toes, like any good racer he often stretched the interpretations of the rules to the limit, this certainly added more rigour to this process.  

His retirement for the 1990 season was timely. In that second season Pinky emerged from under his shadow and competition flourished. Spectators got their wish, to see variety in the results as new champions emerged. Among those stepping into the breach was Issa, driving the ex-Wittingham wagon who contended with the likes of Mark Roberts and Mike Lewis. In the less lofty classes David Kerr, Peter Rae, Wayne Foster, Warren Moo-Young, Victor Brown, Steve Sigarny, Jeffery Panton, Gary Gregg, Robin Sutherland, Ricky Vaz, the Summerbell family (father, son and daughter) all had moments in the limelight in the sorting of the new order. This certainly created some exciting racing. 

Moodie would return to the track in 1991 and competition was much better for it as arguably the most epic racing battles of Dover emerged from this era. Chris Issa and Wittingham's autocross wagon locked horn with him and the Bomb in a fiery confrontation that left spectators exhausted with excitement. Peter "Bull" Thompson, earned the distinction of being the first driver to beat the Bomb cleanly in an outright battle. Mike Lewis with new confidence claimed several classes for his own against the Castrol Opel and hurled his Escort at the Bomb in many David vs Goliath-like showdowns.

Though the early years of Dover wasn't simply about Peter Moodie, his influence never could be ignored whether for good or for bad. His record as a racer is more obvious than his impact as a car builder, apart from his own cars, several other competitors benefited from his direct assistance in putting their cars and race efforts together, additionally there were those whose campaigns were less directly but quite significantly affected by his assistance. Remember his role in sorting out the Magnum single-seater racers?

Moodie retired again from Dover in 1992 and has rallied and raced successfully overseas since. Dover again heaved a sigh of relief continued creating new heroes and champions and great racing. The pace of the sport for a time accelerated driven by new forces and personalities but as David Summerbell Jr., Bull Thompson or Alfred Chen destroyed lap records in the latter years there has always been that haunting question as to how would Moodie and the Bomb fare against them, that I guess is the impact of his influence.

In 200??, Moodie returned to Dover as mentor and chaperone for his three sons and celebrity car builder and mentor for several others including Norman "Shampoo" Deon from Montego Bay for whom he had built a special Lancer Evolution. Pre-meet hype billed a big epic confrontation between new turbo era hero, Evo king Doug Gore debuting a well stocked Japanese spannered, megapower Evo 6 versus Moodie's local efforts to be driven by Deon.

And Moodie did make an explosive return. Showing that his dominance at the wheel extended into the turbo era he also appeared at the helm of a Lancer Evo 5. Gore and team-mate Oliver Townsend and a Deon's Moodie-tuned car were expected to take centrestage in the event. When the green flag fell the the wily old stager Peter Moodie pounced from the blocks in a manner reminiscent of the days of the Bomb, reeling out his customary early lap lead on his, no doubt startled competition and in front of thousands of dumbstruck spectators. Sadly, a huge plume of fire beneath the car midway through the lap signaled the end of his run and finally ushered him back into the background as, not insignificantly, chaperone and mentor to a New Generation of Moodies.