FAMILY FORTUNES IN RALLY STANDINGS

With eight rounds run and just two to go, the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Virgin Atlantic Driver’s and Class Championships are still some way off being settled. The fight for the title of Overall Class Champion is particularly fierce, with a spread of just 24 points across the leading six drivers . . . the first two of whom share a surname!
Currently at the head of the standings is Production 4 leader Barry Gale (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), who assumed the lead with his fifth class win of the season in the Karcher Summer Stages last month; erstwhile points leader Paul Bourne’s Ford Focus WRC07 has returned to England, and he looks set to sit out the rest of the season.
So far, Bourne has slipped to fourth in the standings (he remains on 112 points), behind Gale’s father Freddie (Toyota Corolla RunX) and Mark Hamilton (Ford Escort MkII), respectively the leaders of Modified 7 and SuperModified 11 – they are tied in second place on 118 points, 13 adrift of Gale Junior.
After missing the season’s first event, the double-header BRC Gravel Sprint in March, SM10 leader Ian Warren (Suzuki Swift) has worked himself up to fifth place on 108 points; his sixth consecutive class win last month moved him one point ahead of Geoff Noel, nudging the Production 4 Evo IX driver down to sixth.
With two more events before year-end, however, and each competitor required to drop his lowest score, the outcome is by no means clear; the next event is the Rally of the Sun & Stars (September 11), shared for points with the Motoring Club of Barbados Inc, with the BRC’s own final event coming at the end of October.
In the Driver’s Championship, based on overall results, Bourne has retained the lead despite his absence last month, although Roger Hill (Toyota Corolla WRC) has pegged his advantage back to just 13 points. Trinidad-based Jamaican John Powell (Subaru Impreza WRC S12) is now 11 points behind Hill and 10 ahead of Roger Skeete (Impreza S12), who missed the early part of the season. These are also the top four in the Class Championship in M8-WRC.
While most class leaders have a comfortable advantage in the standings, there are still some competitors who will need to stay alert over the two remaining events. These include P4 runners Gale and Noel – while the former has a healthy-looking advantage of 24 points, he has scored in every round, while Noel missed the Automotive Art Shakedown Stages in April, waiting on some components. Dropping Gale’s current low score of 12 cuts his advantage exactly in half.
The other class tussle that has been developing in the second half of the season has been in merged M5 & M6, where two class wins on Sol Rally Barbados allowed Jamal Brathwaite (Mitsubishi Mirage) to draw level with early-season points leader Edward Corbin (Daihatsu Charmant), who scored no points. In an uncharacteristic run of bad luck, Corbin also failed to finish the Karcher Summer Stages, when he ran off the road, so has now slipped 16 points behind Brathwaite in another class fight that should run to year-end.

Virgin Atlantic BRC Driver’s Championship
Provisional positions after round 8:
1st Paul Bourne (M8-WRC Banks/Chefette/LIME/Virgin Atlantic Ford Focus WRC07), 110 points
2nd Roger Hill (M8-WRC Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC), 97pts
3rd John Powell - TDAD (M8-WRC Shell Helix Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 86pts
4th Roger Skeete (M8-WRC Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre/Michelin/Warrens Motors Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 76pts
5th Barry Gale (P4 redlinefuels.com/Autolink/Maxi Malta/Rockstar Energy Drink/Metal Craft Works/Weetabix/Bella Beauty Supply Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 62pts
6th Ian Warren (SM10 Automotive Art/Shell V-Power/Simpson Motors Suzuki Swift), 52pts
7th Geoffrey Noel (P4 Globe Finance Inc/Mix 96.9/Sentry Insurance Brokers/Dewalt Tools/Automotive Art/Ezone Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 51pts
8th Dean Serrao (M8-WRC Subaru Impreza WRC S9 & P4 Amalgamated Security Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 39pts
9th Mark Hamilton (SM11 PowerMaster Batteries/Consolidated Finance/Valvoline Oil/Kumho Tires Ford Escort MkII), 37pts
10th Josh Read (SM9 Automotive Art/Baram Services Toyota Starlet), 36pts
etc

Virgin Atlantic BRC Class Championship
Modified 8-WRC: 1st Bourne, 112pts; 2nd Hill, 97pts; 3rd Powell, 86pts; etc
M8-A: 1st Michael Worme (Cot Media Group/Dingolay/Speedline Performance Auto/Ullyetts Machine Shop Service/Slowboy Racing Subaru Impreza STi), 26pts; 2nd Graeme Finlayson - SCO (www.racedandrallied.com Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III RS), 12pts
Production 4: 1st B Gale, 131pts; 2nd, Noel, 107pts; 3rd Serrao, 64pts; etc
SuperModified 11: 1st Hamilton, 118pts; 2nd Owen Cumberbatch (Combo Auto Parts and Service BMW M3), 57pts; 3rd Brian Gill (Aqua Pur/Electric Avenue BMW M3), 54pts; etc
SM10: 1st Warren, 108pts; 2nd Eric Allamby (Shelbury Construction/ACT Sand Blasting/Container Services Mitsubishi Lancer), 45pts; 3rd Logan Watson (The Unknown Entity/Corbz Workz/Big John’s Ford Escort MkI), 40pts; etc
SM9: 1st Read, 84pts; 2nd Neil Armstrong (Pit Bull Energy Drink/Hankook/Gunk/Electric Avenue Toyota Starlet), 48pts; 3rd Neil Corbin (Nassco/Jason Jones/Auto Solutions Toyota Starlet), 47pts; etc
M7: 1st Freddie Gale (Gale’s Hatcheries/redlinefuels.com/Nassco Toyota Corolla RunX), 118pts; 2nd John Corbin (Corbins Garage/Klark-Odio/Automotive Art Toyota Corolla), 53pts; 3rd Kyle Catwell (Chicken Pen Racing/Cutters of Barbados/Carib/Freekz Customz/Auto Plus Motors Volkswagen Golf GTI), 47pts; etc
M6 & M5 merged: 1st Jamal Brathwaite (M6 AM Electrical/FG Wilson/Autoplus Motors/Meridian Windows/Chicken Pen Racing/Ellesmere Quarries/D2 Racing Suspension/Avon Products/Cutters of Barbados/Freekz Customz Mitsubishi Mirage RS), 92pts; 2nd Edward Corbin (M6 Automotive Art/Klark-Odio/Corbins Garage/JVM Signage Daihatsu Charmant), 76pts; 3rd Sean Cox (M5 Simpson Motors Suzuki Swift), 75pts; etc
P3: 1st Sean T Field (Field Insurance Brokers/Castrol/Ackee Tree/AM Realty Services/Landscapes in Harmony Peugeot 306), 36pts
P2 & P1 merged: 1st Fabien Clarke (P2 Barbados Business Listings/Crimson Jade/RCR Tours/Bovell Auto Repair/Big P Customs Brokers/De Fx-Bar Suzuki Ignis Sport), 65pts; 2nd Conor Roach (P2 Peugeot 106), 16pts; 3rd Miguel Toppin (P1 Toyota Starlet), 13pts

For further information:
e-mail - robin@bradfax.com