ALLEYNE TARGETS SIXTH WIN IN 'THE JUNE'

Posted on June 27th, 2014.

Leslie Alleyne is aiming to write himself back in the record books this weekend (June 28/29) with victory on the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Sol Go Even Further June Safari, round three of the 2014 Chefette MudDogs Safari and Safari Novice Championships.

Alleyne and Chris O'Neal are the reigning Champion Driver and Navigator respectively and are hoping to put their Simpson Motors/Shell Spirax/Shell Rimula/Maxxis Isuzu D-Max to good use in the toughest event of the year. This year, the BRC is marking the 58th running of the Caribbean’s oldest motor sport event with a continuous history, the successful first staging of which, in 1957, was the catalyst to the Club’s formation.

Fifteen crews were confirmed at Tuesday’s (June 24) Briefing Meeting at the Barbados Clay Target Shooting Association (BCTSA) Club House at Searles, Christ Church, with an entry of real quality, so Alleyne will not find it easy to collect his sixth victory to equal Wayne Clarke's record. Alleyne says: "The June Rally is my favourite event, and we are definitely looking to do well again this year. I can't let my good friend Wayne Clarke get any further ahead on the roll of honour."

Six-time winner Clarke, navigating for Chris Armstrong, is also on the entry list, so there will be competition and intrigue throughout the marathon 18-hour event. Clarke's fourth success with Armstrong last year - when Alleyne and O'Neal were route-setters - came more than 20 years after the first of his two victories as navigator to Don Hunte, in 1991. Alleyne had drawn level on five in 2012, so needs a repeat this year.

The first crew is scheduled to leave Sol Warrens at 2.00pm tomorrow (Saturday) for the first of four routes. The finish will be at around 9.00am Sunday, at the recently-refurbished and re-launched Marco Polo Bar & Grill in St Philip (formerly Crane Palms Restaurant).

Route-setters for 2014 are the current Championship leaders, Derek Gill and Andrew Croney, who won the Chefette April Safari, and Audley and Jeremy Croney, who finished a close second in the Championship race last year. Gill is also a former winner of 'The June', as Navigator to Peter Bradshaw in 2002, and as Driver to Kevin Yearwood in 2005, the year Gill was crowned Champion Driver.

MudDogs Chairman Ricky Holder said: "This promises to be a really exciting event, and even the weather is beginning to look as though it might add a little more Mud to the MudDogs than we have seen this year . . . and there are two Driver Challenges to spice things up as well.

The first challenge will be shortly after the start, at about 2.15pm. If spectators would like to find it, drive up Shop Hill, then turn right into Country View, behind the old Vaucluse Yard; drive straight and the road continues on to a track that carries you out to Hangman's Hill and the challenge is on the right.

The second challenge is on Sunday morning, almost at the end of what will have been a very tiring event, so the crews will need to be on their toes. It is in St Philip, up on the hill opposite Dodd's Prison. I wish all the crews good luck over the weekend . . . will we see Leslie claim win number six, or even Wayne make it seven."

The Prizegiving for the Sol Go Even Further June Safari will be held next Tuesday (July 1) at 6.00pm, at the BCTSA Club House at Searles, Christ Church, once results are made final.