ARMSTRONG WINS SUMMER NIGHTS TARMAC SPRINT

With changeable weather conditions making life tough for the 40-strong field, Neil Armstrong (Monster/Sol/Chefette/Digicel/Virgin Atlantic/Gunk/Hankook Tyres/Redline Fuels/Simpson Finance/Simpson Motors Suzuki SX4 WRC) triumphed in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Summer Nights Tarmac Sprint on Saturday evening (August 17).   The Hangman’s Hill to Lion Castle stage offered drivers a different challenge on each of the four runs – dry for practice, wet for the first official run, damp for the second, almost completely dry for the final. With tyre choice crucial, and inconsistent surface conditions throughout the course, the final tarmac event in the 2013 BRC Virgin Atlantic Driver’s and Class Championships gave the huge crowds a superb evening of entertainment.   Armstrong’s last-run time of 1 minute 49.27 seconds gave him victory by more than 1sec from Roger Skeete (Sol/Michelin/Simpson Motors/Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre/WTI Subaru Impreza WRC S12); after a bad tyre choice on the first run, then a puncture on the second, Skeete admitted to “negotiating the hairpin right on dry weather tyres for the first time that evening, losing lots of time”, but added “congrats to Neil and the SX4 crew in general.”   Paul Bourne (Chefette/Banks/LIME/Castrol Ford Focus WRC07) finished third, just three-thousandths adrift of Skeete, with Dean Serrao fourth, recording his first WRC-2 class win in the Sugar Ultra Lounge Impreza WRC S9, and noting that “there’s no substitute for seat time. Having done some testing a couple of weeks ago, I felt quite comfortable pushing the car to the max.”   Roger Hill (Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC) finished fifth, second to Serrao in WRC-2, with the leading two-wheel-drive car, the Oreo/Chips Ahoy!/Armstrong Agencies/Power King Batteries/Unknown Entity/Hankook Tyres/SpringBoard Marketing Platforms/In support of Little Pink Gift BMW M3 of Rhett Watson, sixth.   Victory in SuperModified 12 keeps Watson in the hunt for the Drivers’ Championship, his final run better than expected: “I had a flawless run and felt confident it would be a top three 2wd time, but fastest 2wd time and sixth overall was quite beyond my expectation.” Watson remains tied with Conor Roach (Chattel House Realty Peugeot 106), who won the Clubman class, with three more rounds to go.   From the 6.30pm start of the practice run, the event was completed within three hours, despite a few issues: on the practice run, Avinash Chatrani slid off at the Lion Castle cross-roads, requiring a wrecker to remove his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI from a dangerous position, while the wrecker was at work again after the second official run to collect Edward Corbin’s Toyota Corolla RunX, which suffered gearbox failure, and Trevor Manning’s BMW M3 after an off.   BRC Summer Nights Tarmac Sprint Provisional results - overall   1st Neil Armstrong (WRC-1 Monster/Sol/Chefette/Digicel/Virgin Atlantic/Gunk/Hankook Tyres/Redline Fuels/Simpson Finance/Simpson Motors Suzuki SX4 WRC), 1m 49.27s 2nd Roger Skeete (WRC-1 Sol/Michelin/Simpson Motors/Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre/WTI Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 1m 50.41s 3rd Paul Bourne (WRC-1 Chefette/Banks/LIME/Castrol Ford Focus WRC07), 1m 50.44s 4th Dean Serrao (WRC-2 Sugar Ultra Lounge Subaru Impreza WRC S9), 1m 54.41s 5th Roger Hill (WRC-2 Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC), 1m 54.77s 6th Rhett Watson (SM12 Oreo/Chips Ahoy!/Armstrong Agencies/Power King Batteries/Unknown Entity/Hankook Tyres/SpringBoard Marketing Platforms/In support of Little Pink Gift BMW M3), 1m 55.29s 7th Ian Warren (SM10 Simpson Motors/Automotive Art Suzuki Swift), 1m 56.82s 8th Josh Read (SM10 Stihl/Gliptone/Hankook/SDRR/Weetabix/EZone/Coffee Bean Toyota Starlet), 1m 57.80s 9th Dane Skeete (SM11 Rubis/Michelin/Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre/WTI Peugeot 306 Maxi), 1m 58.02s 10th Geoff Noel (GpN Kick Energy Drink/Sentry Insurance Brokers/Automotive Art/CIAC Air Conditioners/Mix 96.9FM/Dewalt Tools Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 1m 58.75s   WRC-1: 1st Armstrong; 2nd R Skeete; 3rd Bourne   WRC-2: 1st Serrao; 2nd Hill   Group N: 1st Noel; 2nd Andrew Mallalieu (Terra Caribbean Subaru Impreza N10), 2m 01.94s; 3rd Mark Thompson (Glassesco Hardware/Stag Beer/NKM Clothing/Local Speed Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 2m 04.38s   SuperModified 12: 1st Watson; 2nd Brian Gill (Coca Cola BMW M3), 2m 01.30s; 3rd Trevor Manning (Ritz/Club Social/Armstrong Agencies/Power King Batteries/Unknown Entity/Hankook Tyres/SpringBoard Marketing Platforms/In support of Little Pink Gift BMW M3), 2m 06.00s; etc   SM11: 1st D Skeete; 2nd Andrew Jones (Lucozade/AP Jones Pharmacy Ford Escort MkII), 2m 00.44s   SM10: 1st Warren; 2nd Read; 3rd Cliff Roett (Paulo’s Churasco do Brasil/Nassco/Mark’s Auto Spares/Roett’s Garage Toyota Starlet), 2m 04.20s   SM9: 1st Mark Kinch (Toyota Starlet), 2m 10.52s – 22nd overall; 2nd Rhett D’Andrade (Rent-A-Tool Daihatsu Charmant), 2m 12.33s; 3rd Shareef Walcott (Castrol/Melwani’s/Sammy Lee Towing & Recovery/rallymax/Roscoe’s Machine Shop Toyota Corolla), 2m 17.54s   Modified 7: 1st Paul Horton - TCI (Sky Motorsports/Java Island/H Racing/Precision Racing Ford Escort MkI), 2m 09.49s – 20th o/a; 2nd Jamal Brathwaite (Valvoline Lubricants/Automotive Art/Mackeson Stoute/Ellesmere Quarries/Chicken Pen Racing/Freekz Customz/Codgi's Customs Brokers Honda Civic), 2m 10.58s; 3rd Jeremy Sisnett (Tiki Bar/Autolink/Indoor Plant Services Ford Fiesta ST), 2m 14.89s   M6: 1st Neil Corbin (Nassco/Jason Jones/Auto Solutions/Castrol/Emtage Electrical Toyota Starlet), 2m 03.60s – 14th o/a; 2nd Jeremy Gonsalves (Makita/SSP/Star Products/Yamaha Opel Corsa), 2m 09.83s; 3rd Brendon Mckenzie (MCK Motorsport/Turbo Plus/Promotech Computers/Concepts/Do-it-best Quality Paints/Colour XL/Blakey’s/Hasselgren Engineering Inc Toyota Corolla), 2m 13.80s; etc   M5: 1st Sean Cox (Simpson Motors/Gliptone/Johnsen’s/Stihl Suzuki Swift Gti), 2m 20.07s – 32nd o/a   Clubman: 1st Conor Roach (Chattel House Realty Peugeot 106), 2m 16.49s - 28th o/a; 2nd Jeremy Croney (Warren’s Lubricants/SRG Engineering/Sign Station/Sweet Temptations Peugeot 206), 2m 17.90s; 3rd Miguel Toppin (Club Peugeot 205), 2m 21.35s; etc   Historic: 1st Stuart White (Lucky Locks BMW 325), 2m 06.33s – 18th o/a; 2nd Greg Cozier (Hyundai Lubricants/Barbados Historic Rally Carnival/Sailun Tyres Ford Escort RS2000), 2m 11.75s; 3rd David Brewster (Hist SRG Engineering/Castrol/Innovative Security Solutions/Gittens & Company – Armstrong/USG Products Peugeot 205GTi), 2m 37.31s   GpB: 1st Kenny Cumberbatch (BMW E36), 2m 17.18s – 29th o/a; 2nd Kevin Cumberbatch (BMW E36), 2m 20.10s   For media information only. No regulatory value.   For further media information, robin@bradfax.com Web sites: www.barbadosrallyclub.com, www.muddogsbarbados.com