This is
Motorsport
History
Famous for it's Nassau Speed Weeks in the 1950's and 60's, The Bahamas has a long tradition of motorsport.
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The inaugural event in 1954 was called the Nassau Trophy Road Races, and Masten Gregory won the main race, the Nassau Trophy, in a Ferrari 375 MM.
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Each year the Speed Week attracted famous drivers; it was a season end fling, with hard racing, mixed with beautiful weather and many social events.
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Over the years, the Nassau Speed Week evolved into a serious competitive event, attracting the greatest drivers and major manufacturers of the day.
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1954 - 1966
Nassau
Speed
Week
The Speed Week was the brainchild of an American, Sherman “Red” Crise, who thought that the old Windsor Airport on New Providence Island would be a great venue for a race circuit.
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"Red" sold his idea to the Bahamian authorities as a way of increasing foreign visitors, and in December 1954 the first Speed Week took place at the Windsor Field circuit, later moving to Oakes Field from 1957.
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The competing drivers included Alfonso de Portago, Masten Gregory, Carroll Shelby, Phil Hill, Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez, AJ Foyt, Bruce McLaren, Roger Penske, Mark Donohue, Innes Ireland, Dan Gurney and Sir Stirling Moss.
Bahamas
Speed Week
Revival
From 2011 to 2013, the spirit of the Speed Weeks were revived in a four-day event that included a concours at Lyford Cay, a hillclimb, an island tour, a fabulous display of the cars on Bay Street and culminated in timed sprints on a specially constructed street course in Arawak Cay, between Cable Beach and downtown Nassau.
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The Speed Week Revival's Grand Patron was Sir Stirling Moss, who won his first Nassau race in 1956 driving a borrowed Maserati 300S.
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The Birth of
EduKarting
A group of enthusiasts headed by David McLaughlin, Jimmy Lowe and Brendan Foulkes, worked tirelessly with the Bahamian Government to bring the Speed Weeks back to The Bahamas.
The 2012 event saw a group of young kart drivers from the UK and the USA demonstrate their skills on track. They also promoted karting through visits to local schools, hoping to promote interest in motorsport in the community, and so the EduKarting Bahamas project was born.