Calvin Ming turns in another impressive performance to win latest race

May 08, 2017 Sports

Gritty young Guyanese driving star Calvin Ming was forced to start from the back of the grid since he did not complete qualifying at the Formula 4

Calvin Ming celebrates on top of the podium after Saturday’s victory.

Championships in Monterrey, Mexico on Saturday.  Driving, as the saying goes ‘like a bat out of hell’, young Ming proceeded to charge through the field and by about midway through the 21 laps race around the 3.2 kms length ‘Autodromo de Monterrey’ circuit, he took over the lead position and went on to win the race by over 7 seconds from his teammate Manuel Suliaman who finished in 2nd position and Alexis Carreno third. The race lasted for 30 minutes.
Calvin Ming and his Ram Racing teammate Manuel Suliaman were both quick in the practice sessions on Friday and Saturday morning, with Ming setting the fastest times.
However, on the last lap of Saturday’s practice session, Ming’s car developed an electrical problem causing the engine to shut down.
He was unable to drive in the qualifying session, since the technicians had to replace the entire wire loom and some solenoids which took several hours, and was only completed just before the start of race #1.
Meanwhile, Ming was quickest in practice yesterday morning. The grid positions for starting race #2 are determined by reversing the first 5 positions from race #1, which placed Calvin in P5.
He got off to a good start and managed to move up to P2 by the end of the first lap. He encountered some difficulty with gear changing, but managed to hold on to finish the race in P2 (2nd) several tenths of a second behind winner Facu Garese.
The starting positions for race #3 are determined by the second fastest qualifying times.
Because Calvin could not participate in the qualifying session he again had to start from the back of the grid.  Immediately after the race started the gear selection issue became a major problem causing him to return to the paddock at the end of lap #2.
However, it could not be rectified, so the technician manually put it into fifth gear and sent him back out so that he could complete the race and get the points for finishing rather than a zero score for a DNF. He drove the remainder of the race in fifth gear only. He stuck to his motto ‘never give up.’
Ming and Team Ram Racing returns to Miami today, before heading out on Wednesday to Indianapolis for the next round of the USF2000 series.
Calvin is the son of veteran local motor racing legend and businessman Stanly Ming, who has been present with his son at most of his overseas races including this past weekend’s event in Mexico.