Skeete Takes Second BRC Win of The Season
Rally of attrition for many
Roger
"The Sheriff" Skeete and co-driver Dave Crawford
(right) tightened their grip on the Barbados Rally Club's
(BRC) Drivers Championship on Sunday; they followed their
win in last month's Cherry Tree Hill Tarmac Sprint with a
dominant performance in the BRC Tarmac Rally, run over 12
stages in the north of the island.
The Texaco/Michelin/McEnearney Quality/Consolidated Finance/Carib
Ford Escort WRC finished just 23 seconds ahead of Paul Bourne/Niska
Cuke (Banks/Pirelli/Texaco/Williams Industries
Subaru Impreza WRC). Roger Hill/Graeme Gittens (Mobil 1/Nassco/Michelin/Motormac
Toyota Celica GT4) placed third, a further minute adrift,
after a close battle with Cliff Roett/Rhett Watson (Michelin/Nassco/Lucky
Horseshoe/Roett's Garage/Toyota Celica GT4) ended when the
latter crashed (right) on the Four Hills stage; Roett and
Watson suffered only bruising.
Just 15 of the 30 starters were declared finishers, after
a day of drama for many crews, including potential front-runners.
Despite three major accidents, however, there were no serious
injuries.
For Trevor "Electric Micey" Manning, teamed up
with new co-driver James Betts, the problems started even
before Sunday; when the Simpson Motors Racing Team Mitsubishi
Evo 5 was started up for the first time on Thursday evening,
an engine problem was identified, which forced his crew to
work long hours to be ready for Sunday morning. Then a steering
arm broke just one stage into the event and, although it was
repaired and he continued, he was out of contention.
So, too, were Roger Mayers and Max Ferri in the Automotive
Art/Shell Helix Ford Focus WRC, which suffered a repeat of
the engine problem which had slowed it at Cherry Tree Hill
last month.
But
there was also good news for the Mayers household, with a
sensational performance from brother Barry (right) in the
Open Modified class Automotive Art/Shell Helix Toyota Starlet;
with co-driver Adam Hart, he placed fourth overall, beating
all the Group N runners, and won his class by an impressive
66 seconds!
Only two Group N cars finished, Geoffrey Noel/Leslie Alleyne
winning the class in the Citgo/Napa/Pirelli/AutoZone/Simpson
Motors Mitsubishi Evo VI from Harold Morley/Geoff Goddard
(Sunbeach Communications Inc Subaru Impreza). Peter Thompson
and co-driver Winston Agard were fortunate to suffer only
bruising when the Glassesco/NKM Clothing Proton Wira rolled
just after the finish of the French Village stage; both were
taken to hospital, but discharged on Sunday evening. Meanwhile,
gear linkage problems had slowed Brian Gill/Ryan Wood (Banks/Pirelli/Texaco/Williams
Industries Subaru Impreza WRX).
Sean Gill and Michael Cummins (Simpson Motors/DaCosta Mannings
AutoCentre/Pirelli Suzuki Ignis) finished sixth overall, taking
the unusually poorly-supported Modified 6 class victory by
well over two minutes.
Runner-up to Mayers in the Open Modified class was the Nescafe/Phillips
Lighting/Sikkens Paints BMW M3 of Jonathan Still/Heath Hazell,
which placed seventh overall. Many of the casualties fell
in this class; after the first three stages, St Elmo Cumberbatch
reported that his F Taylor Associates/Michelin/St Elmo Supermarket
BMW E36 was jumping out of fourth gear his co-driver, son
Owen, was having to hold it in gear. Shortly after, however,
his rally came to an end, when the yellow BMW crashed on stage
four. A slight delay followed, as marshals had to clear oil
from the stage.
Lindsay Farmer/Chad Hadley (Nassco/Phillips Lighting/St James
Travel/Mobil 1 Toyota Starlet Turbo) went off on the French
Village stage during the morning, then retired at the lunch
break reporting total brake failure. Reggie Gill, sporting
a bright new multi-coloured livery on the SDRR Hydraulic &
Industrial Spares Inc Opel Manta, also had a new co-driver,
Ron Layne. They started steadily, but retired when Gill damaged
his left wrist when the steering wheel snapped back when he
went off the road in Sailor Gully.
There were problems aplenty in Modified 7, too. Greg Cozier
retired with brake failure, Andrew Jones with a cracked carburettor
and reigning champions Adrian and Jonathan Linton soldiered
on after losing a lot of time on repairs during the morning
when the front left corner of the AutoZone-backed Vauxhall
Astra collapsed. Edward Corbin/Mark Perkins (Automotive Art/Corbin's
Garage/Klark-Odio Toyota Corolla SR) placed ninth overall
to win the class.
The 12-stage event started and finished at the Vaucluse
Raceway in St Thomas, which was also the service area for
competitors; in the morning, the route covered Vaucluse to
Mt Misery, French Village to Four Hills and Haggatts to Dark
Hole, each stage running twice; in the afternoon, the stages
ran in the opposite direction.
Official results follows
BRC Drivers Championship 2003 round 2
Event BRC Tarmac Rally, March 16, 2003
Overall
1 Roger Skeete/Dave Crawford (Texaco/Michelin/McEnearney
Quality/Consolidated Finance/Carib Ford Escort WRC), 20m 45.24s
2 Paul Bourne/Niska Cuke (Banks/Pirelli/Texaco/Williams
Industries Subaru Impreza WRC), 21m 08.49s
3 Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (Mobil
1/Nassco/Michelin Motormac Toyota Celica GT4), 22m 10.13s
4 Barry Mayers/Adam Hart (Automotive
Art/Shell Helix Toyota Starlet), 22m 18.02s
5 Geoffrey Noel/Leslie Alleyne
(Citgo/Napa/Pirelli/AutoZone/Simpson Motors Mitsubishi Evo
VI), 22m 31.35s
6 Sean Gill/Michael Cummins (Simpson
Motors/DaCosta Mannings AutoCentre/Pirelli Suzuki Ignis),
23m 05.35s
7 Jonathan Still/Heath Hazell
(Nescafe/Phillips Lighting/Sikkens Paints BMW M3), 23m 24.15s
8 Harold Morley/Geoff Goddard
(Sunbeach Communications Inc Subaru Impreza), 23m 34.90s
9 Edward Corbin/Mark Perkins (Automotive
Art/Corbin's Garage/Klark-Odio
Toyota Corolla SR), 23m 58.48s
10 Nicholas Gill/Sean Lucas (McEnearney
Quality/Toyo Tyres/Carib Mazda Lantis), 24m 49.76s etc
Class winners
Modified 9 (including
World Rally Cars)
Skeete/Crawford
Modified 8 (Group A)
Hill/Gittens
Production 4 (Group N)
Noel/Alleyne
Open Modified/Production 3 merged
Mayers/Hart
Modified 7
Corbin/Perkins
Modified 6 & 5 merged
Gill/Cummins
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