GOV'T GRANTS MOTORSPORT FACILITES TO TTASA

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Following our first published announcement at 2pm just minutes after the meeting on October 11th:
http://forums.trinituner.com/forums/vie ... 39#2113539

In a bid to make best use of the elections season, TTASA's President Jameer Ali challenged the government to finally provide a home for motorsport and seal the promise before voters go the polls on November 5th 2007.

Minister of Sport, Roger Boynes stepped up and presented TTASA today with a letter of comfort stating that Camden Airfield in Couva will be available for motorsport event use with immediate effect and 65 acres in Waterloo will be developed by the government into a motorsport facility. That's right, the Gov't will pay for the construction and the land and maintain and operate the facility through SCOTT, the Sporting Company of Trinidad & Tobago.

The letter from the Ministry stated:

Re: Allocation of Lands for the Establishment of Motor Sporting Facilities in Trinidad & Tobago

Reference is made to the subject at caption.

Please be advised that the Cabinet has today approved the following:

(a) the grant of a temporary license to the Trinidad & Tobago Automobile Sports Association (TTASA) for the utilization of the airstrip at Camden for motor sporting facilities for a period of one (1) year as an immediate solution, subject to all statutory approvals;

(b) in principle, to the allocation of 65 acres of land situated at Orange Valley, Waterloo, belonging to Caroni (1975) Ltd., for the establishment, by the state, of motor sporting facilities;

(c) Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs submit for the consideration of Cabinet within two (2) months' time detailed proposals for the use of the permanent facilities referred to at (b) above.

Yours faithfully,

Roger Boynes
MINISTER
Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs

Apparently these plans were quietly being worked on by TTASA for some months now since Cabinet had time to make the necessary approvals and make the announcements today.

Speaking with the President of TTASA, Jameer Ali, he stated that this is a great accomplishment and a real turning point for motorsport in T&T. He said that "never in the 40 years of motor racing in this country has anyone been able to get a formal letter of approval from the government for a permanent motorsport complex, today is history in the making".

Jameer expressed his thanks and gratitude to Link Sampath for finding the proposed site at Waterloo that managed to get the necessary approvals. He also thanked The Minister and the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, The Commissioner of State Lands, the CEO of Caroni (1975) Ltd., the Ministry of Agriculture and the Prime Minister, Mr. Patrick Manning.

Looking at the letter quoted above we celebrate the fact that racing can resume immediately at Camden and hope that the plans at Waterloo follow through to completion as stated "in principle". Hopefully TTASA will continue in earnest and see that these plans and approvals be met in two months' time by Cabinet. Comfort letters have been known to be forgotten after elections, however this seems much more promising.

TTASA already had plans drawn up for the Waterloo motorsport facility. Seen here are the plans for the circuit track and karting track to the south. The stands, pit area paddocks, access roads, pit lane, large parking lot to the north and even alternate track configurations can be seen.



This looks very promising - plans for a drag strip are still to be implemented into the space. And yes that is the Gulf of Paria bordering the east of the track and the temple by the sea can be seen in the bottom left of the image. The track is sea side!

A possible route to the proposed track from the Solomon Hochoy Highway


Immediately though:
The airstrip at Camden will be used for an official drag racing event on October 28th 2007. The first official drag racing event for the year and since the closure of Wallerfield. This Camden airstrip was used by crop dusting aircraft previously and is located a few minutes from the Couva/Preysal flyover.




Some development and preparations will need to be done and TTASA hopes to get this done within the next two weeks.

Read other discussions over the last two days:
We gettin ah track - 2000+ views

MINISTER TO MEET TTASA @ 12:30pm TODAY! - 1900+ views

Post made by TTASA President

Please be advised that i made a commitment that we will have a grand event on the 28th of October 2007. Anyone who wants to be a part of this event can contact me directly 680-2058 remember for this event to be successful i will need your full support. Earlier this year i had promise you all we will have a home for Motor Sport and indeed this dream has become a reality with the hard work of TTASA management it has paid off. Today i would like you all to become members of TTASA
and work together with me in making Trinidad and Tobago the number one destination for Motor Sport in the Caribbean. My next meeting i will make a statement
on further development at the TTASA monthly meeting which will be held at National Stadium POS. Next Wednesday.

http://forums.trinituner.com/forums/vie ... 66#2114466

Stay tuned for further developements!

[FugiTECH]

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[disco biscuit]

in the words of Shao Kahn and Mr. Burns.. Excellent...

[plex]

Some good news..

[JUS4SHO]

nice time for tuner drags call outs

[TriniGT]

Sweet, let me know how I can help with preparing the track. I don't mind spending my weeekends and evenings to help get the track up to a respectable state. Anyone with further information feel free to PM me. I wanna go down to the area and check it out this weekend as well as the new propsed area.

[Tired Accord]

^^ Jason - I was thinking to take a pass down there this weekend too. After all - I (and hundreds more) does fly over over that area very often...(when going offshore)....What day you planning?

[wagon r]

....hmmmm...time to start back beggin for "visas" on sundays......


...cyar wait to see the V8 rails take to the strip....

[Anton]

Excellent news. Time to raise boost.

[De Bench]

this circuti track completely flat, no elevation changes

[Yeo]

Well done to TTASA and Link. I personally hope that this is a positive sign of the growth and development of both motorsports and TTASA.

[cdx2k1]

[White CZ4A]

[miguel granville]

willing to help pm me or call 784-3532 ask for miguel

more ppl to help the better it is

[ninjaboost]

owwwhh owwwhh...

owwwhh owwwhh...

sikitah...

sikitah...

I need to get back a car ASAP... who sellin?

[maZdaspeed6]

BESSSSSS.....WELL DONE .....

[VK-Sportsman]

Pics from this morning. Went and spoke to the guard.

I cannot See that this facility will be used for drag racing by the 28th Oct.

Reason:
1. The Camden airstrip is still in use by Briko Air Services. They use the strip to train pilots. Also, the airstrip is designated for emergency aircraft landing.

2. Safety. Where there is Aircraft-fuel, it is dangerous for motor-racing to take place. For instance, if a car crashes into one of the fuel tanks. Plainly stating, Aircraft and Drag racing DO NOT MIX.

[arnold_k69]

kool, thas right where i work in the heliport. wasnt aware that it was being placed here, congrats to motorsport fans and participants.

[adrenaline]

I am really happy bout this and i truly wish this is a positive turning point for mototrsports in T&T, aint no stoppin us now!

[stretcherz]

Ah tell ninjaboost doh sell the car but nobody listens to me... Now look what happen now. Ah tell yuh as soon as yuh sell the car, we go get a track.

[disco biscuit]

The letter from the Ministry stated:

Re: Allocation of Lands for the Establishment of Motor Sporting Facilities in Trinidad & Tobago

Reference is made to the subject at caption.

Please be advised that the Cabinet has today approved the following:

(a) the grant of a temporary license to the Trinidad & Tobago Automobile Sports Association (TTASA) for the utilization of the airstrip at Camden for motor sporting facilities for a period of one (1) year as an immediate solution, subject to all statutory approvals;

(b) in principle, to the allocation of 65 acres of land situated at Orange Valley, Waterloo, belonging to Caroni (1975) Ltd., for the establishment, by the state, of motor sporting facilities;

(c) Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs submit for the consideration of Cabinet within two (2) months' time detailed proposals for the use of the permanent facilities referred to at (b) above.

Yours faithfully,

Roger Boynes
MINISTER
Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs

Somebody better show Briko this.

[stretcherz]

Ah tell ninjaboost doh sell the car but nobody listens to me... Now look what happen now. Ah tell yuh as soon as yuh sell the car, we go get a track.

[cheese pie]

SUZUKI SPORTsman and I took ah drive down there this morning, from what a security guard told me is that the air stip is used to train pilots on the use of small air craft or crop dusters which still use the run way ,

the militray does training exercises here ( this is what the guard said eah) its also used by national helicopter services to make emergency landings. this has happened as receently as 2 months ago

its not an old air strip in any way , its used , alot actually and i honestly dont see that event happening on the 28th

now this is what a guard told me , and what i saw , i dont know in the meeting if there were stakeholders from briko , national helicopter services and air ports authority ect at the meeting or who met with the minister

I dont mean to throw cold water but if the stake holders were not involved i dunno how they going to have an event on the 28th

[Yeo]

grand event on the 28th of October 2007.

Uh-oh... DWO is having a drift event on the 28th of October at ARC compound.

[sirbill]

Well done folks. I particularly like the design of the new race track plus alternate config. Congrats to all working behind the scenes amongst all the criticism for getting at least this much. Let's hope that development of the facility sees the light of day.

[miguel granville]

hoss i dont think the strip will be busy on a sunday, is not like we going and change up the ppl thing, the only thing that may change is a time board on the side

and all them militray training exercises, train of pilots, ECT
they dont happen every weekend.
i have a cuz that is training to be a pilot and he tell me that is one in a while they go there to train

[Mr Gear]

In case you were not aware, the Wallerfield airstrip used for motorsports for the past 40 years was in fact an alternative landing strip for aircraft diverted from Piarco.

Also, the fuel tankers will have to be moved to an area deemd to be safe. Race tracks the world over have fuel depots and I sure hope that race fuel will be available on the track when the new facility is finally built.

[TREX]

Excellent
well Done Guys

[Maserati]

I cannot See that this facility will be used for drag racing by the 28th Oct

is just the weekends,how big an impact will it have on briko etc?

2. Safety. Where there is Aircraft-fuel, it is dangerous for motor-racing to take place. For instance, if a car crashes into one of the fuel tanks. Plainly stating, Aircraft and Drag racing DO NOT MIX.

the fuel tanks are located where?at the 'pit area' or along the runway?

[SR]

In case you were not aware, the Wallerfield airstrip used for motorsports for the past 40 years was in fact an alternative landing strip for aircraft diverted from Piarco.

Also, the fuel tankers will have to be moved to an area deemd to be safe. Race tracks the world over have fuel depots and I sure hope that race fuel will be available on the track when the new facility is finally built.

once TTASA has somthing concrete and in writing
then forget what briko has to say

they do not own the land

but there is a lot of work to be done to get the area ready


however it is no way near the amount that was required for the caroni swampland option
so i do see drag racing starting soon but not before elections