RALLY CLUB COMPETITOR NUMBERS ON THE INCREASE

Nearly 80 drivers scored points in the 2009 Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Virgin Atlantic Driver’s and Class Championships, a 10 per cent increase on the previous year, and nearly double the number who scored in BRC events as recently as 2003; not only was there quantity, but quality, too, with both the Driver’s and Overall Class Champions settled at the final round, the latter decided by a tie-break.
No driver enjoyed a 100 per cent success rate during the 2009 season, although Overall Class Champion Geoff Noel looked set to do so until the early stages of the final event, the BRC Winter Rally; the impressive reliability record of his Group N (Production 4) Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX took its first knock of the year, with a persistent gearbox problem dropping him behind Harold Morley (Subaru Impreza N14), the only other among the six P4 runners to have contested every round.
Noel’s total of 198 points equalled that of Modified 6 winner Edward Corbin (Daihatsu Charmant); under the tie-break rules, Noel’s greater number of class wins – 11 to Corbin’s 10 – settled the title, leaving Corbin the runner-up for the fourth time in seven years. SuperModified 11 winner Jonathan Still (BMW M3) finished third, two points behind on 196, SM10 winner Ian Warren (Suzuki Swift) fourth on 191.
Paul Bourne, who also won the Driver’s Championship and M8-WRC, was fifth, with 187 points collected in his Subaru Impreza WRC and Ford Focus WRC. Neil Armstrong (Evo VI) won M8-A, beaten only once in the nine events contested, by Martin Atwell (Evo III).

SuperModified 11: only Jonathan Still (BMW M3) contested every round, winning all but two, for a fifth class title in six years. The early-season battle with ’08 champion Nick Gill (Mazda 3) faded after Sol RB09, as mechanical failures prevented Gill achieving the results that the car’s pace deserved. Although the most popular class, with 13 drivers, many appeared only a handful of times
SuperModified 10: only Ian Warren (Suzuki Swift) and Rhett Watson (Ford Escort MkI) achieved a 100 per cent attendance record of the nine who turned out; Warren was beaten twice, on the second day of Sol RB09 (Watson), then in the MCBI’s Rally of the Sun & Stars (Cliff Roett, Toyota Starlet), on the way to his fourth consecutive class title
SuperModified 9: after a bad start - he missed the first event, then the Starlet failed in the third – even four wins could not help Josh Read to a hat-trick of class titles; six wins, four in the higher-scoring rallies, gave last year’s runner-up James Betts (Opel Corsa) an unbeatable total. In another popular class, with 12 starters, Neil Corbin (Starlet) won the scrap for third with Stuart White’s similar car
Modified 7: although 10 drivers scored, only Freddie Gale (Toyota Corolla RunX) entered every round, claiming his first class title since ‘03; he benefitted in part from John Corbin’s (Toyota Corolla) late start, also the demise of reigning Champion Adrian Linton’s Vauxhall Astra GSi, following a rare visit to the scenery on Sol RB09
Modified 6: alone among the eight drivers to contest every round, Edward Corbin (Daihatsu Charmant) was beaten twice, first by Danny Williams (Ford Fiesta), then by Jamal Brathwaite (Mitsubishi Mirage) on day two of Sol RB09; Brathwaite finishes runner-up, and could have been closer, had he not missed the first four rounds
Modified 5, P3 & P2: M5 winner Sean Cox (Suzuki Swift GTi) was the only driver in these poorly-supported classes to complete nearly a full season; Sean Field (Peugeot 306) won P3, while Fabien Clarke (Suzuki Ignis Sport) might have lost his P3 class title had Dane Skeete (Peugeot 106) chosen to contest the final event

Virgin Atlantic BRC Overall Class Championship
– after Final Round 12
* totals shown are calculated less the lowest score

1st Geoffrey Noel (P4 Globe Finance/DeWalt Tools/Essco/Sunbeach/Automotive Art Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 198 points *
2nd Edward Corbin (M6 Automotive Art/Klark-Odio/Corbins Garage/JVM Signage Daihatsu Charmant), 198pts *
3rd Jonathan Still (SM11 Hitachi Power Tools/Ocean Spray/Philips Lighting/Crane & Equipments/Little Switzerland BMW M3), 196pts
4th Ian Warren (SM10 Simpson Motors/Shell V-Power Suzuki Swift), 191pts
5th Paul Bourne (M8-WRC Banks/LIME/Virgin Atlantic Subaru Impreza WRC S9 & Ford Focus WRC), 187pts
6th James Betts (SM9 All Terrain Plus/Cellate Caribbean/Makita/Black Bess/Yamaha/Champion Auto/Quik Start Auto/Kendal Sporting Opel Corsa), 177pts
7th Freddie Gale (M7 Gale’s Hatcheries/Nassco/VP Racing Toyota Corolla RunX), 166pts
8th Harold Morley (P4 Subaru Impreza N14), 150pts
9th Rhett Watson (SM10 The Unknown Entity/MQI Collision Repair Centre/Toshiba/Office Solutions & Supplies/Corbz Workz/Castrol Ford Escort MkI), 147pts
10th Roger Hill (M8-WRC Esso/Nassco/Motormac Toyota Corolla WRC), 144pts
etc
* tie resolved based on more class wins, Noel 11, Corbin 10

Virgin Atlantic BRC Class Championship
– after Final Round
* totals shown are calculated less the lowest score

Modified 8-WRC: 1st Bourne, 187pts; 2nd Hill, 144pts; 3rd Roger Skeete (Michelin/Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre/Warrens Motors Subaru Impreza WRC S9 & S12), 106pts; etc
M8-A 1st Neil Armstrong (Simpson Motors/Hankook/ Shell V-Power/Gunk Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI), 140pts; 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, 198pts; 2nd Morley, 150pts; 3rd Dean Serrao (Amalgamated Security/Coconut Car Rentals/Lucky Games Inc Subaru Impreza N12 & Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 96pts; etc
SuperModified 11: 1st Still, 196pts; 2nd Nicholas Gill (SDRR/Glassfibre Products/Castrol/Barb's Bikinis Mazda 3), 102pts; 3rd Sammy Cumberbatch (Williams Industries/Digicel/F Taylor Associates/Castrol BMW M3), 48pts; etc
SM10: 1st Warren, 191pts; 2nd Watson, 147pts; 3rd Cliff Roett (Carters & Co/Nassco/Lucky Horseshoe/Roett’s Garage/Castrol Toyota Starlet), 73pts; etc
SM9: 1st Betts, 177pts; 2nd Josh Read (Automotive Art Toyota Starlet), 141pts; equal 3rd Neil Corbin (Nassco/Jason Jones/Auto Solutions Toyota Starlet), 104pts; etc
M7: 1st Gale, 166pts; 2nd John Corbin (Corbins Garage/Klark-Odio/Automotive Art Toyota Corolla), 108pts; 3rd Adrian Linton (Ravensden/Morris Straker Construction/Garbage Gobbler/Crane & Equipments Vauxhall Astra GSi), 87pts; etc
M6: 1st Corbin, 198pts; 2nd Jamal Brathwaite (AM Electrical Solutions/Arthur Construction/Arthur Lifting and Freighting/Ellesmere Quarries/Chicken Pen Racing/D2 Racing Suspension Mitsubishi Mirage), 121pts; 3rd Danny Williams (Chris’s Workshop/Sunbury Plantation House/Barbados Paragliding Association Ford Fiesta), 76pts; etc
M5: 1st Sean Cox (Simpson Motors Suzuki Swift), 126pts; 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), 85pts
P2: 1st Fabien Clarke (Barbados Business Listings/RCA Tours/Bovell Auto Repair Suzuki Ignis Sport), 65pts; 2nd Dane Skeete (Peugeot 106), 55pts; 3rd Conor Roach (Peugeot 106), 12pts

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