SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Ch­agua­nas' Rishi Kan­ick is the fastest drag rac­er in T&T. Yes­ter­day, he clocked a time of 5.58 sec­onds at the Rich­mond Mo­tor­sports Park at Rich­mond, Vir­ginia, USA, dur­ing his first qual­i­fy­ing round to ad­vance to to­day's fi­nal.

The 40-year-old clocked a top speed of 237 mph in the Lu­cas Oil Drag Rac­ing Se­ries.

Rain de­layed the start of rac­ing as Kan­ick spent the greater part of the morn­ing fine-tun­ing his $2 mil­lion ni­tromethane-pow­ered car. Kan­ick said: "I am the first in the re­gion to race in the A-Fu­el class and I ex­pect to break all re­gion­al speed records in drag rac­ing."

Kan­ick was ac­com­pa­nied by Hol­lis­ter "Flam­beaux" Ed­wards, a vet­er­an in the T&T's drag rac­ing.

Ed­wards said he was im­pressed with Kan­ick's per­for­mance.

He said: "Kan­ick may just prove to be this decade's great­est drag rac­er in T&T. But let me re­mind you that drag rac­ing is not for the weak-heart­ed or the shal­low-pock­et­ed."