HIGH-PRESSURE END TO RALLY CLUB SEASON

Faced with four points-scoring chances in five weekends, competitors in the 2009 Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Virgin Atlantic Driver’s and Class Championships are heading for a high-pressure end to the season. With eight of the 12 rounds run, the final reckoning is just over the horizon, with dropped scores yet to play a part in what has proved to be one of the Club’s most successful seasons, with more than 70 drivers scoring Championship points.
Despite failing to claim an overall finish on the MCBI’s recent Rally of the Sun & Stars, shared for points with the BRC, Paul Bourne (Ford Focus WRC) remains at the top of the Driver’s title chase, three points ahead of Roger Hill (Toyota Corolla WRC), who registered a dnf on the same event. Neil Armstrong’s first overall victory in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI has allowed him to close on Bourne and Hill, while Roger Skeete (Subaru Impreza WRC S12) has climbed to fourth, ahead of Geoff Noel (Evo IX). Ian Warren (Suzuki Swift) and Jonathan Still (BMW M3) are separated by just one point as they fight for the honour of highest-placed two-wheel-drive.
In the Class Championship, Bourne has a 13-point lead over Hill in Modified 8-WRC, while Armstrong leads M8-A comfortably from Kirk Watkins (Evo V). Group N leader Noel has maintained his 100 per cent record in his class – a total of 146 points – with SuperModified 11 leader Jonathan Still (140pts), SM10 leader Ian Warren (133pts) and SM9 leader James Betts (130pts) his closest challengers for the overall class title . . . once dropped scores are taken into account, however, Noel’s advantage will diminish.
The remaining rounds of the Virgin Atlantic Driver’s and Class Championships are the MCBI Double Header Tarmac Speed Event on October 4 (shared for points with BRC, also scoring as two Championship rounds), the BRC Autumn Gravel Stages two weeks later and the BRC Winter Rally over the weekend of October 31/November 1.

SuperModified 11: only Jonathan Still (BMW M3) has contested every round, which has helped him to a commanding lead, with more than twice the total of closest challenger Nick Gill (Mazda 3). Recent strong performances from brothers Sammy and Owen Cumberbatch in their M3s have forced Justin Campbell (M3), absent for the last two events, from third place down to fifth.
SuperModified 10: only Ian Warren (Suzuki Swift) and Rhett Watson (Ford Escort MkI) have a 100 per cent attendance record, with the former 25 points clear; Warren’s early-season sequence of class wins was interrupted on the second day of Sol RB09 by Watson, and then in the MCBI’s Rally of the Sun & Stars by Cliff Roett, who demoted fellow Toyota Starlet driver Ralph White to fourth.
SuperModified 9: Josh Read (Starlet) has been playing catch-up and, while he has beaten James Betts (Opel Corsa) three times in the past four rounds, third place behind Betts and Neil Corbin (Starlet) beneath the sun and the stars leaves him 36 points adrift, although Betts has low scores to drop; Stuart White’s (Starlet) third place is now under challenge from Corbin.
Modified 7: having drawn level on points following a rare visit to the scenery on Sol RB09 for early points leader Adrian Linton (Vauxhall Astra GSi), the consistent Freddie Gale (Toyota Corolla RunX) now leads in Linton’s continued absence. Top three finishes in recent events have given John Corbin (Toyota Corolla) third place.
Modified 6: one of three winners this year, Edward Corbin (Daihatsu Charmant) has the upper hand with six victories; second is Danny Williams (Ford Fiesta), but Jamal Brathwaite (Mitsubishi Mirage) is fast closing in, despite only starting the season with Sol RB09 (class winner on day two).
Modified 5, P3 & P2: Sean Cox (M5 Suzuki Swift GTi) is the only driver from these groups to have done the full season (largely without local competition), while class leaders Sean Field (P3 Peugeot 306) and Fabien Clarke (P2 Suzuki Ignis Sport) finally have some new arrivals to fight with.

Virgin Atlantic BRC Driver’s Championship
– after Round 8
1st Paul Bourne (M8-WRC Banks/LIME/Virgin Atlantic Subaru Impreza WRC S9 & Ford Focus WRC), 94 points
2nd Roger Hill (M8-WRC Esso/Nassco/Motormac Toyota Corolla WRC), 91pts
3rd Neil Armstrong (M8-A Simpson Motors/Hankook/ Shell V-Power/Gunk Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI), 74pts
4th Roger Skeete (M8-WRC Michelin/Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre/Warrens Motors Subaru Impreza WRC S9), 57pts
5th Geoffrey Noel (P4 Globe Finance/DeWalt Tools/Essco/Sunbeach/Automotive Art Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 54pts
6th Barry Gale (M8-WRC Autolink/VP Racing/Bella Beauty Supply/Pro Pac Dog Food Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI), 50pts
7th Trevor Manning (M8-WRC All-Terrain Plus/Garbage Master/Bess Block Ford Escort WRC), 49pts
8th Ian Warren (SM10 Simpson Motors/Shell V-Power Suzuki Swift), 43pts
9th Jonathan Still (SM11 Hitachi Power Tools/Ocean Spray/Philips Lighting/Crane & Equipments/Little Switzerland BMW M3), 42pts
10th Martin Atwell (M8-A www.racedandrallied.com Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III RS), 30pts
etc

Virgin Atlantic BRC Class Championship
– after Round 8
Modified 8-WRC: 1st Bourne, 116pts; 2nd Hill, 93pts; 3rd Skeete, 74pts; etc
M8-A 1st Armstrong, 112pts; 2nd Kirk Watkins (Abacus Builders/Hankook Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V), 61pts; 3rd Michael Worme (Cot Media Group/Speedline Performance Auto/Dingolay/Details Car Valet Subaru Impreza STi), 49pts; etc
Production 4: 1st Noel, 146pts; 2nd Morley, 105pts; 3rd Dean Serrao (Amalgamated Security/Coconut Car Rentals/Lucky Games Inc Subaru Impreza N12 & Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 82pts; etc
SuperModified 11: 1st Still, 140pts; 2nd Nicholas Gill (SDRR/Glassfibre Products/Castrol/Barb's Bikinis Mazda 3), 66pts; 3rd Sammy Cumberbatch (Williams Industries/Digicel/F Taylor Associates/Castrol BMW M3), 48pts; etc
SM10: 1st Warren, 133pts; 2nd Rhett Watson (The Unknown Entity/MQI Collision Repair Centre/Toshiba/Office Solutions & Supplies/Corbz Workz/Castrol Ford Escort MkI), 108pts; 3rd Cliff Roett (Carters & Co/Nassco/Lucky Horseshoe/Roett’s Garage/Castrol Toyota Starlet), 48pts; etc
SM9: 1st James Betts (All Terrain Plus/Cellate Caribbean/Makita/Black Bess/Yamaha/Champion Auto/Quik Start Auto/Kendal Sporting Opel Corsa), 130pts; 2nd Josh Read (Automotive Art Toyota Starlet), 94pts; 3rd Stuart White (3W’s Racing Team/Propac/Crane & Equipments/Flyin’ Fish/Aqua Pur/Catch Chocolates Toyota Starlet), 62pts; etc
M7: 1st Freddie Gale (Gale’s Hatcheries/Nassco/VP Racing Toyota Corolla RunX), 118pts; 2nd Adrian Linton (Ravensden/Morris Straker Construction/Garbage Gobbler/Crane & Equipments Vauxhall Astra GSi), 87pts; 3rd John Corbin (M7 Corbins Garage/Klark-Odio/Automotive Art Toyota Corolla), 61pts; etc
M6: 1st Edward Corbin (Automotive Art/Klark-Odio/Corbins Garage/JVM Signage Daihatsu Charmant), 133pts; 2nd Danny Williams (Chris’s Workshop/Sunbury Plantation House/Barbados Paragliding Association Ford Fiesta), 76pts; 3rd Jamal Brathwaite (AM Electrical Solutions/Arthur Construction/Arthur Lifting and Freighting/Ellesmere Quarries/Chicken Pen Racing/D2 Racing Suspension Mitsubishi Mirage), 65pts; etc
M5: 1st Sean Cox (Simpson Motors Suzuki Swift), 104pts; 2nd Dave Sealy (Lunatics Inc/G & G Sales & Service/L G Trading/Barbados Muffler Centre/Appleby Filling Station/ACT Sand Blasting/Techno Toy Tuning/Fast Lane Model Car Racing Toyota Starlet), 20pts; 3rd Rhett D’Andrade (Rent-A-Tool Toyota Starlet), 10pts
P3: 1st Sean T Field (AM Realty/Ackee Tree/Field Insurance Brokers/Landscapes in Harmony Peugeot 306), 65pts
P2: 1st Fabien Clarke (Barbados Business Listings/RCA Tours/Bovell Auto Repair Suzuki Ignis Sport), 65pts; 2nd Dane Skeete (Peugeot 106), 28pts; 3rd Conor Roach (Peugeot 106), 12pts

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