Rally Carnival Action Starts Saturday
Hutchinson and Linton tied for top spot
The Red Bull International RallySprint at the Vaucluse Raceway
in St Thomas on Saturday (May 19) will provide island motor
sport fans with their first chance to see the visitors to
the seventh annual Barbados Rally Carnival in action.
European competitors, popular crowd-pleasers Kevin Procter
and Martin Stockdale among them, have been arriving at Grantley
Adams International Airport since Saturday and their competition
cars are due to emerge from the Bridgetown Port early this
week.
Qualifying is slated for 10.00am, with the Group heats scheduled
for a 3.00pm start; the sun will have set long before the
Group Winners Handicap KnockOut begins. A prize-giving will
complete the day's activities.
Saturday's event is the third and final round of the 2007
Vaucluse Raceway RallySprint Cup, which is poised for a thrilling
climax, with a spread of just five points across the top four
drivers.
Jointly leading the way after two rounds are Adrian Linton
and Spencer Hutchinson. Driving his regular Ravensden/Crane
& Equipment/Garbage Gobbler/West Coast Garden Centre/Edwin
Clarke Furniture Vauxhall Astra GSi, Linton has been one of
the stars of the St Thomas venue this season, with a near-perfect
record - apart from finishing second to Roger Marshall (Photofinish/One
Hour Photo Hyundai Accent) in qualifying in the opening round,
he has headed the Modified 7 Group throughout, and gained
a couple of useful bonus points for wins in the Handicap KnockOut
in round two.
Hutchinson, who races a Peugeot 306 S16, does have a perfect
record in the Production Group, but with only one bonus point
for a Handicap win, is tied on 47 with Linton; it has been
a good performance, though, as former kart racer Hutchinson
returned to competition this year after some years away. He
carries competition number 200, as the Vaucluse Raceway clocked
up its double-century of competitors when Hutchinson first
raced there in March.
Just two points adrift of these two is Kirk Watkins (Abacus
Builders Inc/Hankook Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V), who has the
distinction of being the only competitor not to have missed
a single event at Vaucluse since the venue opened in August
2000. He in turn is just three points ahead of Jonathan Still
in the Hitachi Power Tools/Philips Lighting/Warrens Motors/Crane
& Equipment/VP Racing BMW M3.
The Red Bull International RallySprint (May 19) is the third
and final round of the Vaucluse Raceway RallySprint Cup and
a round of the BRC Driver's Championship. It is organised
by the Vaucluse Raceway Motor Sport Club and sponsored by
Red Bull.
Since its creation, the Barbados Rally Carnival has attracted
nearly 160 overseas competitors, followed by more than 4,000
supporters over the years, who annually inject around Bds
$2 million into the island's economy, much of it in valuable
foreign exchange.
2007 Vaucluse Raceway RallySprint Cup
Positions after two rounds
1st equal Spencer Hutchinson (Peugeot 306 S16)
& Adrian Linton (Ravensden/Crane & Equipment/Garbage
Gobbler/West Coast Garden Centre/Edwin Clarke Furniture Vauxhall
Astra GSi), 47 points
3rd Kirk Watkins (Abacus Builders Inc/Hankook Mitsubishi Lancer
Evo V), 45pts
4th Jonathan Still (Hitachi Power Tools/Philips Lighting/Warrens
Motors/Crane & Equipment/VP Racing BMW M3), 42pts
5th Andrew Skeete (Hitachi Power Tools/Rent-a-quip/Quality
Tyre Mitsubishi Lancer), 37pts
6th William Branch (Automotive Art/ImitationTrees.com Toyota
Corolla), 36pts
7th equal Freddie Gale (Gale's Hatcheries/NASSCO/Castrol/VP
Racing/Barbados Industries Toyota Corolla RunX) & Greg
Cozier (Citgo/Hyundai Commercial & Industrial Ford Escort
RS2000), 32pts
9th Sean Gill (First Caribbean VISA/Automotive Art/Shell V-Power
Suzuki Swift), 24pts
10th equal John Corbin (Corbin's Garage/Klark-Odio Toyota
Corolla) & Trevor Manning (Shell V-Power/Simpson Motors/Garbage
Master Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII), 20pts
etc
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