ALL TO PLAY FOR IN MUD DOGS SAFARI CHAMPIONSHIP

There’s still all to play for in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) 2010 Mud Dogs Safari Championship, even for those crews who had a nightmare weekend on the recently-contested Shelbury Construction June Safari, the 54th running of the longest-established motor sport event in the Caribbean with a continuous history.
Thanks to the introduction for the 2010 season of a dropped-score rule, the fight is still on for the Navigator and Driver titles. While the Shelbury Construction June Safari, round three of five in this year’s expanded Championship, might appear to have given some crews a significant advantage, it is well worth looking at the standings in a different way, says Mud Dogs Chairman Leslie Alleyne.
As the former Champion explains: “Of course, we will only officially drop the lowest score at the end of the season for the final tally. However, a look at the current standings, taking into account dropping that lowest score, really does change how it looks in a major way!
“It is important that those crews who had a bad weekend in ‘The June’, and two or three of them were Championship front-runners, don’t get disheartened mid-way through the season. When you check the dropped-score points, you can see how close things really are - just a handful of points separate the top half-dozen competitors in both the Navigator and Driver standings, and the Novice points close up, too, once you drop the lowest score.”
This year, there are five rounds of the Mud Dogs Safari Championship - at the end of the season, competitors must have competed in four of those five events, and each Navigator or Driver’s best four scores will count toward the final tally. Setting an event – for which a competitor is rewarded with the points equal to his or her best result of the season - qualifies as one of the four scores to meet the minimum requirement.
While the Navigator and Driver standings are led by Ryan Corbin and Dustin Edwards, whether or not you take into account the dropped score, the complexion of the list behind each changes significantly, once you do drop the low score, with a major shake-up of the top 10.
In the Navigator standings, for instance, Corbin’s lead of 18 points over Derek Edwards becomes merely a two-point advantage over Neil Barnard, while the spread of points across the top 10 is cut from 70 to just 18. Conversely, last year’s Champion Navigator and Driver Robert Warren and Darrin White drop a few places down the order, once the dropped score is taken into account.
There is a similar effect in the Novice Championship: while the leading Navigators and Drivers all remain the same, the spread across the top three is cut by around half in each case. Navigator Andre Murrell’s lead over Gary Mendes comes down from 16 to four points, while Driver Ben Norris’s advantage over Adrian Sinckler is reduced by two.
Alleyne added: “With three of our events now complete, I must also say how pleased I am that we continue to attract newcomers to the sport. We have had more than 90 persons take part in our Championship Safaris this year – and a few others have tried the practice events – which encourages us to work ever harder to make our events appealing and challenging to all.”

Mud Dogs BRC Safari Championship
Positions after round 3
Navigators
1st Ryan Corbin (Blockman/SDRR Hydraulic & Industrial Spares/Crane & Equipment Toyota Hilux), 178 points
2nd Derek Edwards (SDRR Hydraulic & Industrial Spares/Joe Brooker's Building Toyota Hilux), 160pts
3rd Wayne Clarke (Suzuki Samurai), 158pts
4th Kirk Watkins (Axis Inc Isuzu D-max), 150pts
5th Robert Warren (Flyin’ Fish/Lucky Locks Nissan Frontier), 138pts
6th equal Neil Barnard (Gale’s Agro Products/redlinefuels.com Ford Ranger & Huzier/Mahindra Motorsports/redlinefuels.com Mahindra Pik-Up) & Warren Gollop (Mitsubishi Pajero), 132pts
8th Renata Roett (Toyota Hilux), 120pts
9th Stephen Dear (SDRR Hydraulic & Industrial Spares/Next Generation Electrical/Joe Brooker's Building Toyota Hilux), 118pts
10th equal Jeremy Croney (Suzuki Samurai & Toyota Hilux) & Andre Murrell (Suzuki Samurai), 108pts
etc
Novice Navigators
1st Murrell, 108pts – equal 10th overall
2nd Gary Mendes (LG Trading/Lunatics Inc Mitsubishi Pajero iO), 92pts
3rd Winston Drakes (Marks Auto Spares/Champion Auto Wrecker Service Suzuki Samurai), 57pts
etc

Drivers
1st Dustin Edwards (Blockman/SDRR Hydraulic & Industrial Spares/Crane & Equipment Toyota Hilux), 178pts
2nd Damian Brooker (SDRR Hydraulic & Industrial Spares/Joe Brooker's Building Toyota Hilux), 160pts
3rd Chris Armstrong (Suzuki Samurai), 158pts
4th Darrin White (Flyin’ Fish/Lucky Locks Nissan Frontier), 138pts
5th equal Brett Barber (Mitsubishi Pajero) & Barry Gale (Gale’s Agro Products/redlinefuels.com Ford Ranger & Huzier/Mahindra Motorsports/redlinefuels.com Mahindra Pik-Up), 132pts
7th Ben Norris (Pitbull Energy Drink/ACE Engineering Land Rover Discovery), 122pts
8th Edson Arthur (Toyota Hilux), 120pts
9th Dominic Brooker (SDRR Hydraulic & Industrial Spares/Next Generation Electrical/Joe Brooker's Building Toyota Hilux), 118pts
10th Gregory Dickenson (Toyota Hilux), 116pts
etc
Novice Drivers
1st Norris, 122pts – 7th overall
2nd Adrian Sinckler (Suzuki Samurai), 108pts
3rd Luke Gittens (LG Trading/Lunatics Inc Mitsubishi Pajero iO), 92pts
etc

Mud Dogs BRC Safari Championship
Positions after round 3 – lowest score dropped
Navigators
1st Ryan Corbin, 120pts
2nd Neil Barnard, 118pts
3rd Wayne Clarke, 114pts
4th equal Jeremy Croney, Stephen Dear & Derek Edwards, 108pts
7th Kirk Watkins, 102pts
8th Yosuf Patel (Black Bess Quarry Toyota Hilux), 98pts
9th Warren Gollop, 96pts
10th Robert Warren, 92pts
etc
Novice Navigators
1st Andre Murrell, 76pts – 12th overall
2nd Gary Mendes, 72pts
3rd Winston Drakes, 56pts
etc

Drivers
1st Dustin Edwards, 120pts
2nd Barry Gale, 118pts
3rd Chris Armstrong, 114pts
4th equal Damian Brooker & Dominic Brooker, 108pts
6th Wayne Manning (Black Bess Quarry Toyota Hilux), 98pts
7th Brett Barber, 96pts
8th Darrin White, 92pts
9th Ben Norris, 88pts
10th equal Edson Arthur & Gregory Dickenson, 82pts
etc
Novice Drivers
1st Norris, 88pts – 9th overall
2nd Adrian Sinckler, 76pts
3rd Luke Gittens, 72pts
etc

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