STEER IT UP!

If you like your racing with a side of jerk chicken, reggae music, and killer views, head to the Carnival of Speed in Jamaica.

- Ezra Dyer

I LIKE TO THINK I'm an adventurous tourist, if not on the level of Anthony Bourdain, then at least more ambitious than your average Croc-wearing American sunburn victim. And yet, it took three trips to Jamaica before I heard about Dover Raceway, a 1.6-mile road course up in the hills between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios. It turns out I've stayed about 15 minutes away, in the ironically named Discovery Bay, without realizing that a legendary Jamaican racetrack was right there in the backyard. Which, in my defense, would have first required realizing that this beautiful island nation of 2.8 million people has legendary racetracks, a matter on which I was regrettably ignorant for far too long. So this year, I decided to attend the Jamaica Race Drivers Club (JRDC) Carnival of Speed at Dover Raceway in St. Ann and find out what circuit racing looks like, Jamaica-style.

Actually, it was last year when I decided to attend a Jamaican race. But then Hurricane Beryl walloped the island, and an outbreak of dengue fever followed. The chairman of the JRDC board of directors fell ill, and the regular quarterly race schedule was put on hold.

But the schedule is back on track for 2025, and I land in Montego Bay on Easter Sunday, eager to go watch the practice rounds the day before the main event. However, I've made a rookie mistake: thinking I can rent a car on an island on a holiday weekend. Yeah, I have a reservation, but no, they have no cars. I get a bus to my hotel and eventually find a fellow named Derek willing to make the trek to Dover the next day. This is an all-day kind of thing, so when we arrive on the appointed morning, I buy Derek a pit pass. Based on the way he wheels a Toyota Coaster bus along the back roads, he might have a future in racing.