By KEVIN SHAW From Water Craft Journal

According to a piece on the IJSBA website, a long time affiliate, Cayman Islands Watercraft Association (CIWA) started its 2017 season in the Caribbean with a small, yet serious competition. The first round of the CIWA National Championships Series of racing took place east of the Red Bay Dock on Sunday March 26, 2017 with Mike Young helping in race administration and in the booth as an announcer.

Four classes competed and those consisted of expert, amateur, novice, and beginner. The water was flat so it made it easy to run at top speeds and Gary “GJ” Whittaker took advantage of the glassy conditions by winning all three motos in the expert class. He was the top dog for the Nuttin 2 Lose team.

Vanjee “VJ” Ramgeet of BYP Racing grabbed two second place finishes and a third and ended his day with a second place overall. Nathan Ebanks, a rider for Tony’s Toys finished with a third place overall. Nicholas Hydes of SHO picked up fourth and Wayne Cato of Proven Performance snagged a fifth overall finish.

Matthew Panton of Nuttin 2 Lose won two motos, which put him in the number one slot in the Amateur category. Ramgeet ranked second in the amateur division. The top spot in the novice class went to Tyler Watler of Turnt Up Racing. Thase Walter, another team rider for Turnt Up Racing placed third overall.

Tiamma Ramgeet of RTP-RAM TECH Racing was the first female rider to win a race in the Cayman Islands. She jumped right in there with the guys and managed to pull off a win in the finale in the beginner class. Ramgeet’s ski suffered mechanical problems in the first two motos and once those were repaired, she was good to go and finished second in her class.

CIWA President, Vincent Ramgeet was stoked with the first event of the season and told CaymanSportsBuzz.com, “It’s been quite a day. A few crafts went down [with mechanical problems] but that’s racing for you. The top guys are putting on quite a show.”

For more on this story go to: http://watercraftjournal.com/cayman-islands-ijsba-racing-season-begins/