SI&C Inc. acquires Champion drag race car
Long serving patron of local motor racing and platinum sponsor of the National Drag Championship round one, Secure Innovations & Concepts Inc has acquired Deryck ‘Mad Dog’ Jaisingh’s Supra.
The 2019 Drag Championshipwinning car won the unlimited class when the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC) held their 1320 heat rematch in October 2019, the last drag race before the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a release from the GMR&SC, principal of SI&C Inc, Harold ‘Topgun’ Hopkinson who is a veteran racer and sport shooting champion, explained that he decided to purchase the vehicle so that the memory of Jaisingh, who passed away last year can live on in the sport, and the fact that he saw immense potential in the car.
At the 1320 heat rematch, the S&D Performance (Shawn Persaud) tuned car clocked 8.7 seconds to take the championship.
Hopkinson highlighted that with the new modification and works from the retained S&D Performance mechanics, he is excited to see the machine operate at its full potential.
‘Topgun’ Hopkinson confirmed
that the vehicle will be piloted by his son, Denzel who has had successes in the GMR&SC Group Two and the GT Motorsports Karting events.
Team SI&C Inc. has revealed that in the coming days, Denzel will be at the track getting more acquainted with the car as less than two weeks remain for the title defence on February 28th at the South Dakota Drag Strip, Timehri.
He also disclosed that he may take to the track in the BM Soat Auto
Sales 2020 Toyota Supra in a challenge against power houses, Team Mohamed’s Lamborghini Aventador SVJ.
The GMR&SC announced recently that the amount of fans who will be present to witness the action at the venue will be significantly lower that what is expected with ticketed entry only due to Covid-19 regulations. However, the event will be live streamed on the GMR&SC Facebook page.
NEW DELHI, (Reuters) - South African all-rounder Chris Morris became Indian Premier League’s (IPL) most expensive buy in the players’ auction on Thursday, while China’s Vivo returned as the title sponsor of the eightteam tournament.
Six players, including three Australians, emerged as millionaires from the auction ahead of this year’s tournament scheduled to begin in April.
Morris returned to the Rajasthan Royals for a staggering 162.5 million rupees ($2.2 million) following a fierce bidding war involving the Punjab Kings.
“He’s one of those players with experience who can deal with a price tag like that,” Rajasthan chief operating officer Jake Lush McCrum told a video conference.
“We’ve rebalanced the side this year. He fills an important role for us,” he said of the 33-year-old allrounder.
“A quality bowler for all phases of the game, and he can win a game with a bat as well.”
Towering New Zealand quick Kyle Jamieson was snapped up by Royal Challengers Bangalore for 150 million rupees.
Bangalore also agreed to shell out 142.5 million for Glenn Maxwell, outbidding Chennai Super Kings to snap up the explosive Australia all-rounder.
Australian quicks Jhye Richardson and Riley Meredith joined Punjab for 150 million rupees and 80 million respectively.
Uncapped Krishnappa Gowtham was the only Indian millionaire who joined Chennai for 92.5 million rupees.
Among the uncapped players, Arjun Tendulkar was bought for two million Indian rupees ($27,546) by defending champions Mumbai Indians, who have his father and batting great Sachin as the team mentor.
England all-rounder Moeen Ali was sold to Chennai for 70 million rupees, while compatriot and top-ranked T20 batsman Dawid Malan joined Punjab for 15 million.
Australia’s Steve Smith, who was released by Rajasthan last year, went to Delhi Capitals, coached by compatriot Ricky Ponting, for 22 million rupees.
Chris Morris
Earlier, IPL governing council chairman Brijesh Patel confirmed Chinese smartphone maker Vivo’s return as title sponsor of the world’s richest Twenty20 league.
Vivo had secured the IPL sponsorship rights for 20182022 for nearly 22 billion rupees but pulled out of last year’s tournament amid a backlash against Chinese firms in India.
Developing countries including territories in Latin America and the Caribbean are likely to find the pace of their post COVID-19 recovery significantly compromised notwithstanding the fact that during 2020, a full calendar year of the pandemic, they attracted a record share of global foreign direct investment, according to Investment Trends Monitor published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) at the end of January this year.
UNCTAD’s revelations are attributed to what the report says was a “significant” fall in investment in the infrastructure and productive sectors in developing countries, a circumstance which it says, has weakened their COVID-19 recovery prospects.
The report blames the circumstance on what it says was a steep decline in international project financing targeting named regions including Latin America and the Caribbean. This, notwithstanding the fact that overall foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to developing countries showed relative resilience during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, falling by just 12 per cent in 2020 compared with the staggering 69 per cent collapse recorded by richer economies.
Overall, developing countries attracted a record 72 per cent of global FDI last year, according to UNCTAD.
UNCTAD’s Director of Investment and Enterprise Development James Zhan is quoted as saying that investments in the infrastructure and productive sectors “are
crucial for productive capacity and infrastructure development and thus for sustainable recovery prospects. The UN agency defines productive capacities as the productive resources, entrepreneurial capabilities and production linkages that together determine the capacity of a country to produce goods and services and enable it to grow and develop.
“Without investment in the productive sectors of the economy, developing countries will struggle to rebuild from the effects of the pandemic,” Zhan said.
Globally, announced greenfield projects, where a company plans to invest in new production facilities in a foreign country, declined by 35 per cent in 2020 to an estimated $547 billion. According to the report, the decline was even steeper in developing economies, dropping 63 percent in Africa and 51 percent in Latin America and the Caribbean. Even developing economies in Asia – the group that has weathered the coronavirus-induced FDI storm the best – saw a 38 percent drop in greenfield announcements, UNCTAD says.
The UNCTAD report informed that global cross-border project finance deals, an important source of investment in infrastructure including ports and dams, were weak up to the third quarter of 2020, prior to a flurry of new project announcements in the final months of the year most of which were part of COVID-19 economic support packages.
The UNCTAD report further states that the limited capacity of poorer countries to roll out COVID-19 packages to stimulate investment in infrastructure meant that big drops in project finance deals were registered in those economies.
And according to the UNCTAD assessment, the slide for developing countries is not yet over. Even more worrying, the report says, is that the biggest drops in international project finance in developing economies occurred in the second half of the year, which is contrary to global trends.
Zhan says that this year there are worrying signals that project finance in 2021 will be skewed towards developed economies, and that any increase in Foreign Direct Investment flows is more likely to come from cross-border mergers and acquisitions than from new investment in productive assets.