The basic concept was this: Red Bull Racing has a race team committed to travelling the world to put on a show. Thus, they are the Red Bull show car team. The target is to run a Formula One racecar in a country or area that the company already has or wants to have a strong presence. Jamaica is reported to have the third largest per capita consumption of the energy drink, which follows that our sunny isle would be a natural selection for such a venture. Twenty six locations were visited last year by the team, bringing a taste of what a Formula One event is to an audience that probably would not have had an appreciation of what the sport is otherwise. The cars are run on a street course that offers a unique, picturesque setting of the country, so naturally the usually busy Trafalgar Road with NCB’s Atrium and the BNS Building as its backdrop was a natural selection to define our land.

The concept was taken a bit further by project coordinator and long time race organizer and driver Dean Corrrodus, who had long envisioned an event that could draw participants from all disciplines of motorsport, new car dealers, automotive product suppliers and other business partners in one eclectic mix of automotive heaven. As such, what the patrons at the Red Bull Formula One Urban Run & Auto Fair experienced was not only the demonstration of what a five million US dollar Formula One car can do: achieving speeds of just under 200 mph under race conditions; 0-100mph and back to 0 in less than 5 seconds; dizzying, smoking donuts and burnouts and as the V10 3.0 litre engine shrieked up to somewhere near 19,000rpm, but also they were witness to all the latest offerings from the new car dealers that were in attendance: BMW, Suzuki, Audi, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi and Subaru, of the practical application of much of the technology that was developed and introduced in Formula One and has now found a place in the vehicles that can be enjoyed by the ordinary driver.

It certainly was not only 19 year old Swiss Formula One driver Sebastian Buemi who was having all the fun on the day, but participants who got a chance to test drive the dealer vehicles on the course with their proud marketing  managers looking on and the participants from the race clubs and motoring organizations: The Radio Control Association of Jamaica (Radio controlled scale replica cars)who opened the show, the Classic Car Club of Jamaica (classic and vintage automobiles), The Jamaica Karting Association (go karts),  The Jamaica Race Drivers Club (circuit racing), the Jamaica Millennium Motoring Club & the Montego Bay Motoring Club (rally and sprint cars), members of the drag racing fraternity, stunt bikers Gichie, Mackie and Cutter  and three stars of the Wet ‘n Slide Dexterity series (Ivan Lee in a turbo charged Toyota MR2, Marcus Barnes in a turbocharged Toyota Corolla SR5 and Richard Rerrie with entertainer and recording artiste Buju Banton as his co-pilot in a Subaru Impreza WRX rally car) made popular by the Montego Bay Motoring Club, all conspired to satisfy every possible taste for things with engines in them that use public roads.

The event had an on time 10 a.m. start and at points was running ahead of schedule, till bad luck struck. On the second run of the Formula One car, the clutch gave out. The car was wheeled back to the pit where another show of sorts then took place. The six race engineers under the guidance of coordinator Julian Mills the set about changing the clutch in forty minutes… twice! What normally would have been a delay turned out to be a display in speed and efficiency. Although it was announced to the over 30,000 fans that there was a problem, they hardly took notice, as the bike stunt riders followed by the dexterity performers were too busy distracting them with skillful displays that all but took one’s breath away. From Mackie the bike stunt rider doing wheelies with 5 persons on board…one across his shoulders - to Ivan lee and Marcus Barnes doing tandem donuts around event production assistant Gregory Brissett’s new Puma shoes (recently acquired at the Puma Store in Tropical Plaza where the team visited along with the Formula Una girls, with the drivers being constantly warned not to run over them, but still approaching to within two inches of them) the “delay” largely went un-noticed, and one wondered if the limelight had been stolen from the Red Bull showcar.

It was indeed a hard act to follow, but then Sebastian appeared on the track for a third and final run…and what a run that was! Talk about saving the best for last! From smoking burnouts to all gear acceleration runs (and there are 7 forward gears mind you) that achieved an estimated 160 mph, closing with a series of one hand off the steering wheel donuts that threw up so much tire smoke that the car disappeared in front of your very eyes, the fans were left screaming. This, along with his own rendition of Bob Marley’s “Jammin’”  on stage at the post event interview offered all the entertainment one could really absorb for one day and certainly endeared the young driver to the Jamaican fans. Sebastian probably had some inspiration from the team’s visit on Saturday to the Bob Marley museum, a temple of the world famous Jamaican reggae music. The team had earlier visited historic Port Royal, once known as the richest, wickedest city on earth, when Caribbean pirates ruled the roost. From there the team then went to grace the Palisades International Raceway, home track of the Jamaica Karting Association, who had generously rescheduled their event to Saturday, May 3 to accommodate the Formula One Urban Run. The karters were treated not only to a picture taking opportunity in the race car, but an impromptu blast around the track with Sebastian in an ill fitting shifter kart, achieving a time just under a second shy of the track record and several runs of the Formula One car on the kart track itself, which in the words of veteran kart and circuit racer Peter Rae was simply “awesome and unreal”.  Previously, the team had a dawn shakedown run on the Dyke road in Portmore early Friday morning, where residents were seem streaming out of bed in night clothes with their camera phones to snap a photo of the novel alarm clock that was the V10 3.0 litre engine, shattering the morning stillness as the sun rose over the majestic Blue Mountain range.

As fans left the venue, picking up bits of tire rubber from the track as souvenirs, no doubt they look to the next event that Red Bull will stage on the island. Maybe the company slogan “Red Bull gives you wings” will really come true.

The next event on the motorsports calendar will be the JMMC/Hilton Kingston Hotel 2nd leg of the National Sprint Championship, to be held on Sunday May 18 at the National Stadium in Kingston. Start time for this event is 9:30 a.m.

From motorsports writer Dean Corrodus.