Motorsports Hall Of Fame Event To Be Held
[Written by Stephen Wright]
Icons from karting, street biking, dirt biking and powerboat racing will be inducted into the Bermuda Motorsports Hall of Fame at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute on March 26.
The Bermuda Karting Club [BKC], the Bermuda Motocross Club [BMC], the Bermuda Power Boat Association [BPBA], and the Bermuda Motorcycle Racing Club [BMRC] have each nominated five inductees who have made outstanding contributions to their sports.
Nominees must have been an athlete, club founder, race-team owner, volunteer, mechanic, committee member, or motorsports advocate and served their clubs for at least five years.
This year’s icons will be the second inductees into the hall of fame; the first ceremony was at the Hamilton Princess and Beach Club in 2019.
Initially, the organisers hoped to hold an induction ceremony annually, but the Covid-19 pandemic temporarily halted those plans.
The judging committee consists of Scott Barnes, the BKC president, David Selley, the BPBA deputy commodore, Takera Dill, the BMRC president, and Ras Mykkal, a long-serving member of the BMC.
The first 20 inductees into the hall of fame in 2019 were Maynard “Duke” Soares, Carlton Johnson, Joel Madeiros, Jason “Skuzzie” North and Scott Barnes [BKC]; Robin Simmons, Burt Ingham, Chris Shanks, Rudy Cann and Aaron Pace [BMC]; Harry Cox, Richard Christensen, Lawrence “Tonky” Trott, Llewelyn Hollis and Mike Marshall [BPBA]; David Jones, Navell “Beetle” Darrell, Rick Vesely, Edward Cook Jr and Cyril Whitter III [BMRC].
The hall of fame is the brainchild of Barnes, the island’s top karting driver, and backed by members of the island’s motorsports fraternity, keen to recognise those who have served their sports with distinction.
“The Bermuda Sports Hall of Fame doesn’t recognise motorsports at the moment, so we took it upon ourselves to establish our hall of fame,” Barnes told Bernews.
“There have been a lot of ‘greats’ in Bermudian motorsports, and they deserve to be recognised just as much as ‘greats’ from any other sport.”
The ceremony, including cocktails at 6 pm, starts at 7 pm.
Tickets, on sale at the relevant clubs, cost $100.
