The team of dri­ver Hay­den Charles, throt­tle man Darin Mar­shall, and nav­i­ga­tor Joseph Charles on board the leg­endary Mr So­lo Too raced to its record-ex­tend­ing 19th ti­tle in the A Class of the 55th edi­tion of the T&T In­ter­na­tion­al Great Race from the Fore­shore in Mu­cu­rapo, Trinidad to Store­Bay in the sis­ter isle of To­ba­go over a dis­tance of 90 miles on Sat­ur­day.

Mr So­lo Too, which last won the ti­tle in 2019 with vet­er­an races Ken­neth Charles, Mar­shall, and Dav­en­dra Jose as team­mates start­ed its trek to To­ba­go among the 8 am starters as the lone 130 mph com­peti­tor, along­side D Class chal­lenger Tyrant (95 mph), and got to To­ba­go at ex­act­ly 9.14 am for a time of one hour and 14 min­utes, to be the third boat to To­ba­go over­all, be­hind G Class win­ner, Lim­it­less fea­tur­ing the crew of dri­ver Otis Walk­er, and throt­tle­man David Singh, who be­gan at 7.25 am and reached To­ba­go in one hour, 10.07 min­utes, with Spec Class en­trant Krak­en with Gary John­son at the wheels, and throt­tle men Jacques Gomes, the sec­ond to To­ba­go in one hour 11.41 min­utes.

The oth­er wins by Mr So­lo Too came in 1970, 1972, 1975, 1978, 1981, 1985, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2017 with Check­mate the next best at sev­en wins,

Two-time reign­ing cham­pi­on boat of the 130 mph A-Class Mo­tul Mon­ster, with the quar­tet of Pe­ter Peake, Joey Sabeeney, Danie Peake, and Josh Sabeeney and hold­er of the world record for the trek be­tween the is­lands at 47 min­utes and 43 sec­onds, took a self-im­posed break for the year with a promise that they will re­turn in 2024, which left the path clear for Mr. So­lo Too in that cat­e­go­ry while 120 mp/h B-Class boat Iron Man did not start.

Mean­while, last year’s cham­pi­on boat of the 130 mph A-Class Mo­tul Mon­ster, which holds the world record for the trek be­tween the is­lands at 47 min­utes and 43 sec­onds, has tak­en a self-im­posed break for the year with a promise that they will re­turn in 2024, mak­ing the path clear for Mr So­lo Too and the vet­er­an and ex­pe­ri­ence crew took full ad­van­tage.

Over­all, 25 boats start­ed the race at Ch­aguara­mas with stag­gered times giv­en to each clash, with on­ly six boats fail­ing to get to the fin­ish at Store Bay in­clu­sive of E Class en­trant and for­mer win­ner Mo­bil Out­law, F Class duo, New World Or­der and Preda­tor, and the trio of G Glass rac­ers’ Time­less, Knot In Slow Mo­tion, and Try Je­sus.

The quar­tet of Dev­il’s Ad­vo­cate and Ruth­less in the G Class, and X Class, duo, Foun­tain, and Ravers were al­so non-starters.

2023 Great Race Re­sults

Class A (130mp/h):

1. Mr So­lo - Hay­den Charles/Darin Mar­shall/Joseph Charles

Class D

1. Tyrant - Dan­ny Agos­ti­ni/Ryan Edghill/Gor­don Dal­gliesh

Class E

1. Heat­wave - John Michael Sab­ga/Mor­gan Hon­nock

2. White Heat - Vic­tor Tardieu/Richard Tardieu/Robert Tardieu

3. Blue Ice - Ja­son Al­leyne/Aj­mal Mustapha

Class F

1. Ex­treme Mea­sures – Jonathan Mout­tet/Jonathan Tardieu/Nicholai As­sam

2. Fire Chief – Saman­tha Keiz­er/Ki­mo Chief

3. Ratch­et – Ak­shay Mano/Stu­art Gomes

4. Ketch This – Dami­an Mata­mori/Jessie Gan­garam

Class G

1. Lim­it­less – Otis Walk­er/David Singh

2. John Wick – Arkim Quashie/Ter­rry Ser­rette

3. Raw Knots – Dario Jor­dan/David Ca­ma­cho

4. Tri­dent II – Make­si Tay­lor/Trevor Sun

Class S

1. Krak­en – Gary John­son/Jacques Gomes

2. Pan­dem­ic – Justin Wort­man/Robert Lobo

3. S Ka­pade – An­drew Sa Gomes/Alex Jod­han

4. Ar­row – Scott Knag­gs/Ja­son Re­ece

5. Asalt Weapon – Daniel War­ren/An­tho­ny Scott

6. Bal­lis­tic – Nicholas Bal­ladin/Mar­cus Gomez