BIGGEST-EVER ENTRY FOR TOP MOTOR SPORT CLASS

The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) will start its 2004 motor sport season in fine style on Saturday evening (February 14) with the biggest-ever entry for Modified 9, the fastest group in the Club’s classifications. The first competition of the year is a night-time Hill Sprint from Mapps College to Stewarts Hill, scheduled to start with a practice run at 6.00pm.
Reigning Modified 9 champion Paul ‘The Surfer’ Bourne (Subaru Impreza WRC) will open his title defence against the strongest competition yet seen in the class . . . particularly at this early stage of the season; the group caters for the fastest cars in the BRC Drivers’ Championship, including four-wheel-drive machines such as those running to WRC (World Rally Car) specification.
Britain’s Harold ‘Doc’ Morley has replaced the Subaru Impreza STi in which he won the BRC’s Group N championship last year with an Impreza WRC of similar specification to that of Bourne; although Morley contested Rally Jamaica in the new car last December, this weekend marks the car’s debut on Barbados soil.
The Ford marque will be represented by the drivers who finished second and third in Modified 9 at season’s end 2003, Roger ‘The Sheriff’ Skeete (Ford Escort WRC) and Roger Mayers (Ford Focus WRC), while Trevor ‘Electric Micey’ Manning is stepping up to Modified 9 for the first time in his Mitsubishi Evo 5. Competition is expected to be intense, as the contenders line up against one another for the first time in many months – rarely have so many of the leading players in Bajan motor sport been fully-prepared at the start of the season, so the event is expected to attract a good following.
And there could be some fireworks down the field as well: a well-focussed Jonathan Still has spent the winter preparing himself – and his BMW M3 – for the new season in Modified Open, where this first event pits the Beemer against Cliff Roett’s rapid Toyota Starlet and the Ford Escort MkII of Calvin Briggs. As there were only two Production 3 runners as entries closed – Lindsay Farmer (Toyota Starlet Turbo) and Derek Roach (Mini Cooper S) – they are currently merged up into Modified Open.
Overall runner-up in last year’s BRC Drivers’ Championship, Edward Corbin (Toyota Corolla SR), faces John Corbin (Toyota Corolla) and Simon Gillmore (Peugeot 205GTi) in Modified 7, which he won last year.
Meanwhile, last year’s overall champion, Sean Gill (Suzuki Ignis), will compete against Neil Armstrong (Toyota Starlet) and Kirk Watkins (Toyota Corolla) in Modified 6; as he is so far the only entry in Modified 5, however, the 2003 class champion Neil Barnard (Opel Corsa) will run against the Modified 6 entries.

Bonus points

Saturday’s event is the first in which a new BRC regulation will apply, whereby competitors can gain bonus points by working in an official capacity at an event in which they are not competing; they will be registered as ‘competitors’ in that Group, however, for the purposes of the minimum number of starters - three. And so, while neither former champion Barry Gale nor Geoffrey Noel will see action in the Group N class on Saturday night, Mikie Hassell (Subaru Impreza WRX) will contest the class on his own, without being merged up.

For further information, contact Robin Bradford (robin@bradfax.com or 422 1829)