Mayers/Ferri Win Action-Packed Rally
Club Finale
Strong performances from Mayers Junior, Corbin and Barnard
The Barbados Rally Club's (BRC) 2003 Drivers' Championship
reached an action-packed conclusion in Sunday's (November
16) Loose Stages Rally, won by Roger Mayers and Max Ferri
in the Automotive Art/Shell Helix Ford Focus WRC.
In a day full of incident, there were strong performances
throughout the field as drivers grasped their final chance
of the year to score championship points.
Mayers/Ferri
(right) led from the start, in an interrupted morning of activity
at the Vaucluse Raceway and the nearby 40 Acres stage in St
Thomas - in the end, only four of the planned six stages were
run, in part thanks to rain making the Raceway stage extremely
slippery. The first retirement was the Toyota Starlet Turbo
of Lindsay Farmer/Chad Hadley, who hit a rock hidden in undergrowth
on the 40 Acres stage, severely damaging the rear suspension.
At
Vaucluse, in very challenging conditions, a number of cars
slid off the road, including Jonathan Still's BMW M3 (right);
before he could get the car moving, it was struck a mighty
blow by Edward Corbin's Toyota Corolla on co-driver Heath
Hazell's door. Although both cars were driveable after the
impact, Still was to retire with deranged steering. Corbin,
however, set to with his service crew and tidied up the car;
with co-driver Mark Perkins, he went on to finish an impressive
fourth overall and comfortable winner of Modified 7 by 56
seconds.
Sean
Dowding/Logan Watson (right) were the closest challengers
to Mayers/Ferri, finishing second, a little over one minute
adrift, in their ProPac-backed Mitsubishi Evo V. Winner of
Modified Open and third overall after a very determined drive
was younger brother Barry Mayers, with co-driver Adam Hart,
in the Automotive Art/Shell Helix Toyota Starlet. In common
with Corbin, he earned cheers and applause from the spectators
who turned out at Black Bess Plantation in St Peter for the
four stages run during the afternoon.
Another
impressive performance came from Neil Barnard and Chris Hoyos
(right), who finished fifth overall in the NP/Sunbeach/Kerridge/
Simpson Motors Rally Team Opel Corsa; with insufficient starters
in Modified 5 to constitute a class, they were merged up to
Modified 6, in which they beat Neil Armstrong/Ben Armstrong
(Toyota Starlet) by nearly nine seconds.
The
afternoon casualties included Cliff Roett/Rhett Watson, who
had been running in fourth place until succumbing to a suspension
problem, while Mikie Hassell/Bruce Wilkie lost a lot of time
on what proved to be the final stage of the day after sliding
off a fast right-hand turn into a spectator's parked vehicle
(right). No-one was injured, but the rear of Hassell's Subaru
Impreza WRX suffered some damage and, although he continued,
he slipped to an eventual 15th place.
Returning
to competition for the first time since Rally Barbados in
June, Geoff Noel had a mixed day in the Citgo/AutoZone Mitsubishi
Evo VI with co-driver Wayne King; the day started badly when
a fuel line pulled loosed during the first stage, but improved
as the day went on, the pair finishing second in merged Modified
8 & Production 4.
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