SKEETE TAKES SECOND BRC WIN OF THE SEASON

Roger ‘The Sheriff’ Skeete and co-driver Dave Crawford 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 more than 23 seconds 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/Massco/Lucky Horeshoe/Roett’s Garage/Toyota Celica GT4) ended when the latter crashed 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 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
For further information, contact Robin Bradford (treelogy@sunbeach.net or 422 1829)
BRC web site: www.rallyclub.com

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