Record Day at Vaucluse Raceway
Manning back on top after hot competition

Records were broken in abundance at the Vaucluse Raceway (VRW) in St Thomas on Sunday (May 22), as the VRW International RallySprint got the competitive action of the fifth annual Barbados Rally Carnival under way.

The largest-ever entry at VRW - 64 drivers - contested more races in one day than ever before, a remarkable total of 86; while many drivers posted 'personal best' times, it was the battle for the lap record between Trevor 'Electric Micey' Manning and Paul 'Surfer' Bourne on which many in the large crowd were focussed.

From an international perspective, it was not too good a weekend for the European contingent, with five of the 19 cars shipped over for the Carnival events failing to survive Saturday's three qualifying sessions. Crews are facing a busy few days trying to repair their cars in time for Rally Barbados 2005 this weekend.

It was clear from quite early that a new outright lap record was possible; the mark stood at 2min 03.43sec, set by Bourne in his Banks/Pirelli Subaru Impreza WRC last year. Prior to that, Manning had held the record since the Raceway opened in 2000, although his personal best in the Shell Helix/Courts/Automotive Art/Kerridge/ Simpson Motors/Garbage Master Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII was a couple of seconds shy at 2:05.64s.

While Manning set the pace, with a lap in 2:04.24, it seemed that Bourne (2:05.88) might not be the only challenger; others on the pace included Roger 'Ninja' Hill, who clocked 2:07.53 in the Mobil 1/Nassco/Motormac/Michelin Toyota Celica GT4 and Roger 'The Sheriff' Skeete, who lapped in 2:08.74, despite the Havoline/McEnearney Quality/Michelin Ford Focus WRC looking decidedly skittish.

Of the overseas runners, English drivers Ray Brammer (Subaru Impreza WRX) and Kevin Procter (Ford Puma Evo 4 x 4) were the quickest, Brammer just ahead on 2:09.72. Among the British casualties on Saturday was John Hardman (right); his only run before the four-wheel-drive Ford Fiesta Cosworth's engine expired had been quicker than Brammer's first run, form which would have certainly seen him bracketed with the front-runners, too.

Qualifying inspired a number of impressive performances right through the classes - Sean Gill's reign as 'two-wheel-drive King' looked potentially under threat; while the double RallySprint Champion posted a time of 2:12.98 in the Suzuki Ignis JWRC, others looking hot included Steve Ollivierre from St Vincent, with 2:14.57 in his Mitsubishi Mivec, and Scotland's Kenny Hall, who clocked 2:14.97 on his second run (the gearbox in his Vauxhall Corsa-Suzuki died on run three and required overnight rebuilding).

Sunday was hot: in front of the largest crowd VRW has hosted for some time, racing was of an extremely high standard and run in perfect weather conditions. In a variation of normal practice, in which each group would be settled at one time, the organisers ran the first-round knock-outs for each group one after the other, so four-wheel-drive action was seen earlier in the day than usual . . . and, with it, came some shock results!

Neither Bourne nor Skeete made it past the first round, Surfer being beaten by Proctor, then Skeete falling prey to Harold 'Doc' Morley (Subaru Impreza WRC); during the losers' run-offs just before the lunchbreak, however, there was some consolation for Bourne (right), who broke his own lap record, posting a new time of 2:02.87 in what he later described as "my best-ever lap round here. I got the hairpins right every time, the high-speed sections, too. I don't see how I could have gone any faster than I did."

The action changed up a gear after lunch, with the run-offs to settle which eight drivers would go through to the Group winner's Handicap KnockOut. Production 1, 2 & 3 merged was won in fine style by the impressive Tristan Gibbs, on his first outing in the ex-Freddie Gale Toyota Starlet Turbo; he first beat Graham Gittens in a similar car, then his brother Sean Gibbs (Datsun 120Y). Sunday marked the debut of the new Suzuki Ignis Sport in the hands of Neil Barnard, who finished third in the group, after Gittens crashed out of the run-off, seriously damaging the Starlet, although uninjured himself.

VRW RallySprint Cup leader James Betts (Opel Corsa) emerged victorious from some exciting encounters in Modified 5, first beating Wayne Manning (Peugeot 205XS), then Brett Clarke (Suzuki Swift). Kenny Hall was beaten by Clarke in an extremely close finish, but went on to defeat Manning in the run-off for third place.

Gill was made to work for his victory in Modified 6, beating the determined Kirk Watkins (Toyota Corolla) by a narrow margin in his heat, then keeping England's Paul McMullen (Proton Satria Kitcar) at bay in the final. Watkins, the only driver to have contested every VRW RallySprint, beat Ollivierre in the third-place run-off.

In Modified 7, with less than two seconds covering the fastest three cars, close racing was guaranteed, and it was delivered. Edward Corbin (Toyota Corolla SR) first beat Greg Cozier (Ford Escort RS2000), then Roger Marshall (Hyundai Accent).

SuperModified 9 & 10 produced another fine display from a VRW novice - in a battle of Toyota Starlets, Josh Read beat Karl Waterman in his heat, although he couldn't quite see off the experienced Simon Gillmore (Peugeot 205) in the final. Gillmore had beaten Matthew Staffner in his heat, the Toyota Corolla driver also losing to Waterman in the third-place run-off.

With a trio of Mark II Ford Escorts, SuperModified 11 was another guaranteed crowd-pleaser, Mark Hamilton winning the final from Welshman Gary Thomas, who had earlier defeated his fellow-countryman Rupert Lomax.

Jonathan Still and England's Martin Stockdale (right) faced one another in their BMW M3s in the SuperModified 12 final, Stockdale having earlier beaten his team-mate Hugh Peat (Ford Escort RS Cosworth). The local man came out the winner, but by a very narrow margin after a race that had the spectators in full voice.

By the time the Modified 8 run-offs were due to start, the spectator areas were packed, and alive with anticipation . . . first to go were Manning and Hill, the race a lot closer than many had anticipated. In the process of beating Hill, Manning regained his lap record, shaving nearly a full second off Bourne's mark from earlier in the day, the record now 2:01.88.

Manning went on to beat Procter in the final, in which the Englishman set a PB of 2:04.08, which was also good enough for the best overseas time of the day, repeating his feat (albeit around 10 seconds faster) of the International RallySprint two years before. Hill, too, established a PB, at an impressive 2:03.99, in the process of defeating Morley in the third-place run-off.

As usual, the Handicap KnockOuts brought out the best in people, the impressive young Gibbs (right) reaching the final, after seeing off Betts and Gill who, in turn had defeated Corbin in his quarter-final. His opponent in the last race of the day was Hamilton, who had beaten Gillmore and Still; Manning suffered a throttle body failure in his run against Still, so could not take on the BMW.

Both Gibbs and Hamilton set their best time of the weekend in the Handicap Final, 'Hammie' bringing the rapid youngster's run of success to an end, his victory coming by just a couple of lengths, another close-run thing on a day of quality racing in a Carnival atmosphere. The end-of-day prize-giving was well-attended, the winners receiving champagne from Axis Inc, plaques from D Blades Trophies Ltd and rally DVDs of Irish producer 'Plum' Tyndall's visits to Barbados.

The Vaucluse Raceway International RallySprint was organised by the Vaucluse Raceway Motorsport Club and supported by Axis Inc, the Simpson Motors Rally Team and D Blades Trophies Ltd.