Bahamas Speed Week Revival

Half a century ago, Speed Week in the Bahamas was one of the most popular race meets on motor racing’s international calendar. Many of the sport’s top names looked forward to each December’s “working vacation” in the Caribbean as the runways of Nassau’s Oakes Field were transformed into a venue for races organized by Sherman “Red” Crise with the assistance of local luminaries Sir Sydney Oakes and Robert Hallam Symonette. First run in 1954, the event attracted entries from all over the world with the prospect of a racing holiday in the then British colony. Sadly, a combination of circumstances, not least of which being Sir Sydney’s death in a 1966 road accident, meant that it all came to an end after the 1966 running.

Following several previously unsuccessful attempts to restore the event, David McLaughlin of Formula One Race Car Entrants (FORCE) was contacted about doing a proper revival. “Through a friend in England,” explains McLaughlin, “I was approached two years ago by a group of the local car enthusiasts with the idea of bringing vintage Formula One cars through my FORCE organization, which is what I do in Europe. I pretty well immediately realized that that wouldn’t be practical and possible, and came back to them and said, ‘Look, you have a heritage, why do you want to do something different?’ So I diverted them into what we have here, and for about six months we bantered backwards and forwards as to the practicalities, and about 18 months ago it started to get serious.”