NO PRESSURE FOR BOURNE

Posted on July 29th, 2006.

With some determined driving on home ground, Paul Bourne set the fastest time in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Summer Nights Tarmac Sprint at Cliff in St John on Saturday evening (July 29) . . . but it was not all plain sailing.
While the remaining 28 competitors were tackling a practice run shortly after nightfall, Bourne’s crew members were working to discover why the Warrens Motors/Plus Subaru Impreza WRC had lost fuel pressure; a solution was found after half an hour or so, just in time for the first of three official timed runs.
Without the advantage of a practice run, he spun at the first junction, the full length of the Impreza across the road, which required three or four manoeuvres to get straight. He said afterwards: “It is so slippery out there; the road’s not wet, but there’s so much dirt on it. I’ve only got two runs left to get it right.”
But get it right he did, his best time of 1min 39.057s giving him a margin of more than two seconds over Barry Gale (Dentyne Ice/Simpson Motors/Nishikoi Fish Foods Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI), another driver whose head was under the bonnet of his car just before the start – his best was 1m 41.465s.
Following his top 10 finish on Rally Barbados, Ian Warren achieved another giant-killing result, third overall in the Subzero Services/Details Car Valet Inc/McEnearney Quality Collision Repair Centre/Aqua Pur Peugeot 206; his Modified 6-winning time of 1m 43.704s placed him ahead of many more powerful cars from higher Groups, including three with four-wheel-drive.
Despite an ever-present threat of rain, some light drizzle near the start and a couple of brief showers closer to the finish were all that fell on a night when nearby locations suffered far heavier downpours. Even so, the varied conditions made life tricky on a course unfamiliar to many drivers, although the weather did not deter spectators, who arrived in large numbers.
Roger Hill finished fourth, despite a slight error on his first run, which affected the alignment of the Mobil 1/Nassco Ltd/Motormac/PPG Toyota Celica GT4. Jonathan Still was fifth in the Hitachi Power Tools/Philips Lighting/Warrens Motors/Crane & Equipment/VP Racing BMW M3, and also won Modified Open; in the closest-fought Group, he beat sixth overall Roger Skeete by 1.3secs, the Havoline/Michelin/FB Batteries Peugeot 306 Maxi completing only two officials run, thanks to gearbox failure.
Mechanical issues meant only 21 cars completed all three runs, those to fail including the Toyota Starlet of Cliff Roett (blown engine) and the Ford Escort of Rhett and Logan Watson brothers, which suffered brake and steering rack problems during the day, then overheating in the evening.
While the conditions caused one or two heart-stopping moments for drivers, the only major incident befell Neil Armstrong; close to the finish of his second run, he ran wide and snagged on a power pole stay wire, which swung his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI round to make heavy contact – thankfully, he was uninjured, and had also already done enough to finish seventh.
Mark Hamilton (Ford Escort MkII), Kirk Watkins (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V) and Adrian Linton (Vauxhall Astra GSi) completed the top 10, Hamilton having reached the start thanks to rapid work by his crew to replace wheel bearings, while Linton survived a minor drama on the practice run, when his throttle cable became disconnected.
The only Group winner not to finish in the top 10 was Neil Barnard, who claimed merged Production 1 & 2 in the Simpson Motors/Shell Helix/Automotive Art/VISA Suzuki Ignis Sport.

Barbados Rally Club Summer Nights Tarmac Sprint
Saturday, July 29
Provisional results - overall
1st Paul Bourne (M9 Warrens Motors/Plus Subaru Impreza WRC), 1m 39.057s
2nd Barry Gale (M8 Dentyne Ice/Simpson Motors/Nishikoi Fish Foods Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI), 1m 41.465s
3rd Ian Warren (M6 Subzero/Details Car Valet Inc/McEnearney Quality Collision Repair Centre/Aqua Pur Peugeot 206), 1m 43.704s
4th Roger Hill (M8 Mobil 1/Nassco Ltd/Motormac/PPG Toyota Celica GT4), 1m 43.843s
5th Jonathan Still (MO Hitachi Power Tools/Philips Lighting/Warrens Motors/Crane & Equipment/VP Racing BMW M3), 1m 44.081s
6th Roger Skeete (MO Havoline/Michelin/FB Batteries Peugeot 306 Maxi), 1m 45.396s
7th Neil Armstrong (P4 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI), 1m 45.676s
8th Mark Hamilton (MO Consolidated Finance/McEnearney Quality Inc Ford Escort MkII), 1m 45.734s
9th Kirk Watkins (M8 Abacus Builders Inc/Planned Maintenance/Aqua Pur Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V), 1m 46.471s
10th Adrian Linton (M7 Ravensden/Crane & Equipment/Garbage Gobbler/West Coast Garden Centre/Edwin Clarke Furniture Vauxhall Astra GSi), 1m 47.065s
etc
Group results
Modified 8 & Production 4 merged
1st Gale; 2nd Hill; 3rd Armstrong; etc
Modified Open
1st Still; 2nd Skeete; 3rd Hamilton; etc
Modified 7
1st Linton; 2nd Freddie Gale (Gale’s Hatcheries/NASSCO/Nitrous Formula Octane Booster/Nishikoi Fish Foods Toyota Corolla RunX), 1m 55.071s; 3rd Ron Layne (SDRR Hydraulic & Industrial Spares Inc/General Welding Workshop/Pavements & Foundations Inc/L & N Workshop Nissan Sunny), 1m 57.722s
Modified 5 & 6 merged
1st Warren; 2nd Brett Clarke (M5 Shell Helix/Automotive Art/Plus Suzuki Swift GTi), 1m 48.927; 3rd Shareef Walcott (M6 Corbin’s Garage/Klark-Odio Toyota Corolla), 2m 07.963s
Production 1 & 2 merged
1st Neil Barnard (P2 Simpson Motors/Shell Helix/Automotive Art/VISA Suzuki Ignis Sport), 1m 59.133s; 2nd Andre Snobel (P2 Toyota Starlet), 2m 04.936s; 3rd Danny Williams (P1 TransTech/All Connect/Sunbury Plantation/KD’s Beach Bar & Grill Peugeot 106), 2m 09.483s