NEW STAGE TO SPICE UP HIGH-SCORING WINTER RALLY

Neil Corbin leads Champion Driver standings ahead of final showdown

With a new 3.20-kilometre stage and the customary enhanced points structure for the final round, there’s all to play in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Driver’s and Class Championships when competitors gather for the BRC Winter Rally on Sunday, December 6. The Champion Driver, 4wd and 2wd titles are yet to be resolved, while the leading margins in no fewer than four classes are in single figures, so fans can look forward to a day of hard-fought competition to bring the pandemic-affected season to a close.
  The BRC Winter Rally will comprise eight stages, five before and three after a lunch break at the Bushy Park Quarry, which will also be the Service Park for the day. Starting at 10.00am and with cars running at 1-minute intervals, there will be three passes through a 3.60km stage from Bushy Park to Congo Road, with two runs from Stewarts Hill to Society; in the afternoon, the longer stage will run twice in the reverse direction, heading back into Bushy Park, with a final run from Stewarts Hill to Society between the two. The Finish will be at approximately 2.30pm at the Bushy Park Cafeteria.
  Postponed from its original November date to allow the motor sport community to take breath after Sol Rally Barbados, the BRC Winter Rally is set to provide a fitting end to a difficult year. With no dropped scores to be taken into account and no ‘two-thirds rule’, contenders need to bring their ‘A-game’: a class win earns 28 points (up from the usual 20), second 23, third 20, down to 10 for 10th place. Covid Protocols will be in force, as for Sol RB20, with temperature checks, hand sanitizers and masks required.
  Rally Club PRO Neil Barnard said: “We have worked hard to create an exciting finale to reward the competitors and the fans who have made such an effort to support our events this year, despite the many challenges that we have all faced. The first stage follows a course within the circuit that we used for Sol RB19, then heads though the pits out on to the ‘race road’, finishing on that straight. The new stage starts goes down from the top of Stewarts Hill and then turns left and left again towards Codrington College, then left again up the steep hill towards Codrington High School, finishing on the straight towards Society and the Lodge School.”
  In the Champion Driver title chase, SuperModified 1 leader Neil Corbin (Toyota Starlet) has 81 points, four more than Andrew Jones (Ford Escort MkII), who leads SM2, with Roger Hill (FIA R5 Skoda Fabia) third on 76, ahead of Britain’s Rob Swann (75pts) and Jamaica’s Jeffrey Panton (71pts) in their WRC Ford Fiestas.
  Swann leads the 4wd Championship with 79 points, seven ahead of Panton, with Hill third on 59 and David Coelho and Andrew Mallalieu tied in fourth place on 53 in their Fiesta R5s; with the points structure based on overall finishing positions in each round, Panton suffered on the second day of Sol RB20, his broken axle dropping him to fourth of the points-scoring drivers, behind Swann, Hill and Coelho.
  Jones has a much more comfortable lead in the 2wd standings, 77 points giving him a cushion of 17 over Barry Mayers (SM2 Ford Fiesta), who had been leading before Sol RB20 with a perfect class-winning record in the first three rounds; his title hopes took a dive, however, when he missed day one of Sol RB20, then finished behind Jones on day two. Corbin is third (58pts), with Jamal Brathwaite (Modified 2 Honda Civic V-Tec) and Rhett Watson (SM2 BMW M3) completing the top five on 49 and 40 respectively.
  The closest-fought class battles include M3, where Ahmed Esuf and David St Hill are tied for the lead on 52 points each in their BMW M3s; Harold Morley (Porsche 911RSR) leads Wayne Archer (BMW 325) by just one point in Historic 2, while Jermin Pope has a six-point advantage over Pierre Clarke in the battle of the Honda Civics in M1. In the 4wd classes, Swann leads Panton by four points in WRC, while Hill has a nine-point advantage in FIA R5 over Coelho and Mallalieu, who are tied for second place.
  Entries for the BRC Winter Rally are open at Motorsport Services in Haggatt Hall from today (Wednesday); while regular entries will close at 3.00pm next Wednesday (December 2), late entries will be accepted up to 12.00pm on Thursday on payment of an additional late fee. The Briefing Meeting will be held at 6.30pm next Thursday at the Barbados Clay Target Shooting Association (BCTSA) Clubhouse, Searles, Christ Church, after which the running order will be published.

BRC Class Championship
Positions after round 5:

WRC: 1st Rob Swann – ENG (Blue Sky Luxury/Marriott All-Inclusive raswann.co.uk Ford Fiesta WRC), 75 points; 2nd Jeffrey Panton – JAM (Rubis/KIG/Sandals Barbados Ford Fiesta WRC), 71pts; 3rd Dane Skeete (Sol/CO Williams Sand & Lime/Automotive Art Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 30pts
FIA R5: 1st Roger Hill (Esso/MaxMeyer Paints/Motormac/DJ’s Skoda Fabia R5), 76pts; equal 2nd David Coelho – T&T (Subway/Motul Ford Fiesta R5) & Andrew Mallalieu (Terra Caribbean Ford Fiesta R5), 67pts; etc
Modified 4: 1st Avinash Chatrani (Lenovo/Gunk/Sign Station/iShop Barbados/Genius Lynk/Axe Solutions Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI), 11pts
SuperModified 2: 1st Andrew Jones (Herr’s Chips/AP Jones Pharmacy/Southern Surf Beach Apartments/Kepro Veterinary Solutions/Gales Agro/Weetabix/Java Island Coffee/Weetabix/The Shore Club Turks & Caicos/Hankook Ford Escort MkII), 77pts; 2nd Barry Mayers (Chefette/Rubis/Quality Tyre/Sign Depot Ford Fiesta), 60pts; 3rd Rhett Watson (Chefette/Stihl/Gliptone/Gunk/Leafy Organics/Hankook Tyres/Bajan Pure Water/Power King Batteries BMW M3), 45pts; etc
SM1: 1st Neil Corbin (Nassco/Jason Jones/Emtage Electric/Auto Solutions/Valvoline Toyota Starlet), 81pts; 2nd Fabien Clarke (Empire Building & Construction/Giovanni Exquisite Car Rentals/Bovell Auto Repair/RCR Tours/South 7 DJs Suzuki Ignis Sport), 47pts; 3rd Ryan O Wood (MB Auto City/Lucas Oil/BizNeeds/Shonny’s Kitchen Toyota Starlet), 22pts
M3: equal 1st Ahmed Esuf (Express Imports Inc/Y Esuf Auto Clinic/Prosales/Premier Diamonds BMW M3) & David St Hill (Tropical Touch/St Hill & Sons Garage BMW M3), 52pts; 3rd Kurt Thompson (Glassesco/NKM Clothing/Bio-Beauty/King Ocean Shipping BMW M3 Compact), 31pts
M2: 1st Jamal Brathwaite (Java Island/Consumers Guaranteed Insurance/Automotive Art/Valvoline/Caribbean Auto Glass/809 Design Associates /TEC Barbados/Stylez Auto Spa/Ellsemere Quarries/Chicken Pen Racing Honda Civic Type-R), 69pts; 2nd Gary Mendes (G & G Sales & Service Inc/Lunatics Inc/Dreamauto Kustomz/Blvck Diamond Kustomz/Big Guys Catering/Barbados Muffler Center/Neil’s Bistro/Wyndham Toyota Corolla), 26pts
M1: 1st Jermin Pope (Glassesco/Good Time Snacks/NKM Clothing/CA Autobody Repairs/Industries Honda Civic), 28pts; 2nd Pierre Clarke (SDRR Hydraulics Honda Civic), 22pts
Historic 2: 1st Harold Morley - ENG (Spectrum X Porsche 911RSR), 48pts; 2nd Wayne Archer (Arrow Woodworking/Arrow Construction/D & A Air Conditioning/Archers Hall Design Center BMW 325), 47pts
Clubman 2: 1st Stuart Garcia (Kirba Inc/Guava Tech/Smith’s Engineering Works BimmaCup), 57pts; 2nd Jason Downey (BimmaCup), 47pts; 3rd Natya Soodeen (BimmaCup), 11pts
Group B: 1st Shawn Eversley (CA Autobody Repairs/Track Batteries/Big Gases/SE Performance Suzuki Swift GTI), 33pts

BRC 4wd Championship: 1st Swann – ENG, 79pts; 2nd Panton – JAM, 72pts; 3rd Hill, 59pts; equal 4th Coelho – T&T & Mallalieu, 53pts; 6th Paul Horton - TCI (FIA R5 Java Island/HO2 Construction/Sky Motorsports Ford Fiesta R5), 41pts; 7th Suleman Esuf (FIA R5 Express Imports/SY Adam & Son/Prosales/Y Esuf Auto Clinic Ford Fiesta R5), 40pts; 8th Stuart Maloney (Rock Hard Cement/Bushy Park Barbados Skoda Fabia R5), 35pts; 9th D Skeete, 28pts; 10th Chatrani, 9pts
BRC 2wd Championship: 1st Jones, 77pts; 2nd Mayers, 60pts; 3rd N Corbin, 58pts; 4th Brathwaite, 49pts; 5th Watson, 40pts; equal 6th A Esuf & St Hill, 32pts; 8th Archer, 27pts; 9th Josh Read (SM2 Weetabix Toyota Starlet), 26pts; 10th Jonathan Still (SM2 Suga Apple Swimwear/Executive Auto Center BMW M3), 25pts; etc

For media information only. No regulatory value.

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Web site: www.barbadosrallyclub.com