QUEST TO FIND NEW RALLY CHAMPION BEGINS

The Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) 50th Anniversary season looks set to be a vintage one, with a quality entry received for the BRC March Gravel Stages, the opening round of the Texaco BRC Rally Championship this Sunday (March 11); the first rally action in the island for more than four months, the event is eagerly anticipated by competitors and spectators alike.
Reigning Texaco Champion Paul ‘Surfer’ Bourne, Trevor ‘Electric Micey’ Manning and Jamaica’s John ‘Pentti’ Powell head the entry list, which was confirmed at a Briefing Meeting at the BCTSA Clubhouse in Searles, Christchurch, on Thursday evening. During the well-attended occasion, Raymond Samuels, retail district manager of Chevron West Indies Ltd, welcomed all competitors to the third year of the Championship.
There will be eight stages: five runs over a course in the Yorkshire Plantation, Christchurch, scheduled to start at 9.00 am, will be followed by a lunch break. In the afternoon, the action will switch to a new stage alongside the Feed Lot at Searles in the same parish. Created specially for this event, the one-kilometre stage is, in effect, a circuit - competitors will complete two laps, during each of their three runs in the afternoon.
BRC vice-chairman Barry Gale said: “Our new competition secretary, Paul Bourne, has been very busy; he’s come up with a stage which promises to please the drivers, but which will also provide an excellent spectator venue. The feedback at the briefing meeting was very positive, so I think we’re going to have a really positive start to the third year of the Texaco Championship.”
From Manning’s viewpoint, a good result this weekend in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII would kick-start his season in the right way; he has been runner-up in the first two years of the Texaco Championship – to Roger Mayers in 2005, then Bourne (Subaru Impreza WRC) last year – and it is a title he would like to add to his collection. While regular co-driver James Betts is competing his own Opel Corsa, Manning will have Kreigg Yearwood sitting alongside. Trinidad-based Powell is a welcome addition to the entry list with his latest Toyota Corolla WRC, and a keen battle is expected between these three, all of whom have been podium finishers in Rally Barbados in recent years.
The two-wheel-drive entry promises some fireworks, too, with Mark Hamilton (Ford Escort MkII), Jonathan Still (BMW M3) and Nicholas Gill (Mazda 3) all entered; they dominated the category in Rally Jamaica last year, their last competitive outing.
New regulations are in force for the next three-year period, among which is a change to the system of points-scoring: a class needs three cars to be subscribed - if only two are entered, the class winner and runner-up will be awarded the points equivalent to second and third places; if there is only one car entered, it will be awarded third-place points. As Gale explains: “This means a poorly-subscribed class cannot produce a Champion Driver by accident, also that classes cannot be as easily manipulated as before, with merging into weaker classes above and earning full points for doing nothing special.”
The Texaco BRC Rally Championship is once again the Club’s premier competition; a compact series, it comprises five rounds between March and October, all organised by the BRC. There are three one-day rallies, plus the two days of Rally Barbados 2007, which count as separate events.

For further information, robin@bradfax.com

Texaco BRC Rally Championship - qualifying rounds:
Mar 11 Round 1 – BRC March Gravel Stages
Apr 22 Round 2 – BRC Carnival Warm-up Tarmac Rally
May 26/27 Rounds 3 & 4 - Rally Barbados 2007
Oct 21 Round 5 – BRC Last Call Gravel Stages
* drivers will count their scores from all rounds

BRC March Gravel Stages, March 11
Texaco BRC Rally Championship – round 1

Running order

1 Paul Bourne/Stuart Maloney (Subaru Impreza WRC)
2 Trevor Manning/Kreigg Yearwood (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII)
3 John Powell - TDAD/Nicholas Telfer – TDAD (Toyota Corolla WRC)
4 Harold Morley - ENG/Geoff Goddard (Subaru Impreza WRC S9)
5 Kirk Watkins/Rhett Watson (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V)
6 Neil Armstrong/Barry Ward (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI)
7 Reggie Gill/Jason King (Mazda 323 GTR)
8 Mark Hamilton/Megan Blades (Ford Escort MkII)
9 Jonathan Still/Heath Hazell (BMW M3)
10 Nicholas Gill/Sue Rogers (Mazda 3)
11 Ian Warren/Barry Hill (Peugeot 206)
12 James Betts/tba (Opel Corsa GSi)
14 Josh Read/Mark Jordan (Toyota Starlet)
15 Freddie Gale/Kyle Proverbs (Toyota Corolla RunX)
16 John Corbin/Owen Proverbs (Toyota Corolla DX)
17 Andrew Jones/Mark Thompson (Ford Escort MkII)
18 Josh Delmas/Lisa Roett (Toyota Corolla GTi)
19 Daryl Clarke/Russell Branker (Mitsubishi Mirage)
20 Neil Barnard/Kevin Massiah (Suzuki Ignis Sport)
21 Calvin Briggs/tba (Ford Escort MkII)
22 Ryan Wood/Raymond Parris (Toyota Starlet)
23 Stuart White/Brendon McKenzie (Toyota Corolla KP30)
24 Allan Kinch/tba (Daihatsu Charmant)
25 Wayne Manning/Willie Hinds (Ford Escort MkI)