Friendly in-house rivalry among Hero boats

WHEN the TT Great Race speeds off more than 20 boats will be vying for the crown, but there are also some friendly rivalries among teams which will add to the excitement and enthusiasm among the participants on September 26.

The race was originally scheduled to be held on August 22, but because of the covid19 pandemic the race was postponed until September 26.

Hero Boodram owns both Hero III and Hero V in the 80 mile per hour class which will compete in the 52nd edition of the TT Great Race.

Boodram, an experienced campaigner in racing, will be the driver and throttleman for Hero III and will have navigator Neil Samaroo in his company.

Hero V includes a young crew of racers eager to upset the more experienced Hero III team.

Throttleman Anthony Scott, driver Videsh Dheecham and navigator Alasdair Bell will be on board Hero V.

Scott, in an interview with Newsday, said, “This year we had a bit of an inter-team rivalry because Hero decided he wanted to bring back out Hero III...the Hero camp now has two boats in the 80 mile an hour class competing against each other.

“We have a bit of an inter-team thing of the old versus the young,” Scott said laughing.

Scott said the Hero V members have learnt a lot from Hero III.

“Both boats do belong to Hero. He brought us in and maybe a few months ago we got Hero III started again...(we thought) it would be a fun idea for us to then take Hero V out and race that and he (Boodram) would come out and Hero III would show us how it’s done essentially. He wanted to come out and teach us a lesson.”

Scott added, “Inside the team is all laughs, but it is a good camaraderie.”

Scott, Dheecham and Bell will be competing for the first time as a team. However, Scott and Dheecham both participated once previously, but Bell will be making his debut in the TT Great Race.

Scott admires Boodram’s skills, saying, “Hero is fantastic in his knowledge of the mechanical (aspects of the boat.) Even any part he can’t find he can make.”

The postponement of the event has worked in the favour of both the Hero teams as they were able to use the extra time to fine-tune the boats.

“Over the last few months we’ve been fortunate enough to get a bit of extra time to go through quite a few things in the boat and get it set up properly and it has also given Hero time to go through Hero III.

That boat has not run for three years thereabouts…I guess with all the delays we’ve had (it) ended up being a bit of an advantage on that front for him since he got the time he needed.”

The sponsors of Hero V are West Indian Logistics, Parts Unlimited, Hero’s Air Conditioning Services Ltd, Donkey’s Doubles, A&B Auto Supplies, DSB Marketing and Erised Supplies.