From over two month's before the event was due to start,
the preperation to the car and the details of shipping Airline
tickets hotel reservations etc started to consume the better
part of each day.
When finally the car was packed in the container, it was
then that I could say for sure that we where on our way. Without
the help of Seaboard Marine and Air Jamaica in getting car's
and crew to Barbados it would have not have been such a simple
task.
Well the morning came early on Thursday the 29th of May,
Arriving at the airport some two hours in advance of the flight
I thought for sure we would be the first there, but low and
behold, the entire team was there. The flight in itself was
pretty straight forward stopping in MoBay and Antigua on route
to Barbados.
On arrival in Barbados, we cleared immigration (don't know
how Bizzy got through) and then customs, to reach out side
the terminal, where we saw Jan Crawford. I cannot say this
enough, without Jan and Dave our trip could not have possibly
been the smooth sailing trip it turned out to be. Well we
got our rental vehicles and headed for the hotel, checked
in to Sandy Beach and then moved straight on to Shipp Inn,
that's where the partying that would last for 12 days began.
We saw most of the familiar faces and met many many new ones.
Scrutineering was the next day so we got off to an early
start, getting the car and doing the final prep. Well to tell
you that I was impressed by the scrutineering would be an
understatement. The whole atmosphere, the quantity of overseas
cars, the amount of spectators etc etc. This event in itself
has given me a lot of ideas to help with the planning of "Rally
Jamaica" in December this year.
We arrived at Vaucluse early on Saturday, and were in awe
at the facility. After not doing too bad in class (4th) the
team made a decision not to run on Sunday. The fact that we
where on circuit suspension, the car was too low and they
where deathly afraid of us having an off and not being able
to compete in the rally (IF I KNEW THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW, I
WOULD HAVE CONTINUED ON :-( ) but hey such is life.
What had me in amazement, was the fact that the handicappers
where able to do their job in such an excellent way, so as
to provide such close racing all day on Sunday. Hats off to
them.
Pace Note's began Monday, we did the better part of 4 days
of driving up and down the beautiful countryside of Barbados
doing our pace notes, really enjoyed the stages and look forward
to being able to use the notes next year :-) Hope the stages
are the same.
One of the many highlights of the trip was pace notes at
bushy park raceway, I wont get into much details but to say
we really did the notes at PACE, and to make sure we where
all set, we did them in both directions :-) Very nice track
I must say.
Well
the rally was, Hmmmm !!! let me cut it into two sections,
1) as a competitor a real let down, coming out on the second
stage has to be one of the low points of my driving career.
2) After swapping the cooler full of GatorAid to Banks that's
when all hell broke loose, I have not enjoyed myself that
much in a while, LIE: the prize giving was a bomb, based on
the MANY MANY photographs I have been emailed , I must say
IT WASNT ME. My evil twin locked me up in the hotel, and went
to the prize giving in my place.
But on a VERY SERIOUS note, we enjoyed ourselves to the max.
Between all of the rally parties, being invited to peoples
homes for dinner and out to dinner and lunch, it made me feel
very much 100% BAJJAM. We shall return, that is without doubt.
We look forward now to the Jamaican rally, running on the
6th and 7th of December we really hope to see all of you here,
to start the partying all over again.
AGAIN thanks especially to Jan, Dave and the entire Bajan
possy, for a trip that will go down in history. And to let
you know that copying is the greatest form of flattery, I
learnt a lot from the Carnival and hope to put a lot of the
ideas into gear for our December rally.
Congrats to all who did well, and better luck to those who
didn't. I know Gary Gregg will be back next year in his WRC
corolla :-)
John Ralston
|