KARCHER SUMMER STAGES OFFERS RARE NIGHT

After an eight-week break, competitors in the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Virgin Atlantic Driver’s and Class Championships will return to action in the Karcher Summer Stages on Saturday, July 24. The event is set to be a big hit with fans, as half the scheduled 12 stages, alternating between the popular Pickerings and Turners Hall venues in the north of the island, will be run at night, increasingly rare in island motor sport.
The service area will be the Greenland Agricultural Station, where competitors must arrive no later than 12.30pm for Scrutineering, which starts at 12.00pm; the event is slated for a 2.00pm start, with three runs each downhill through Turners Hall, then northbound through Pickerings before the dinner halt at around 6.00pm.
The restart is scheduled for 7.00pm, with a further three runs through each stage, in the opposite direction, before the finish at approximately 11.00pm, back at Greenland Agricultural Station. As in previous years, when Pickerings was used for the BRC Summer Nights Tarmac Sprint, the area around the Plantation Yard will be floodlit.
Entries are open at Motorsport Services, Haggatt Hall, St Michael and the running order will be published at the Briefing Meeting at the Barbados Clay Target Shooting Association Club House, Searles, Christ Church, at 7.00pm next Thursday (July 22).
In the Driver’s Championship, based on overall results, Paul Bourne (Ford Focus WRC07) increased his advantage in May to 19 points over Roger Hill (Toyota Corolla WRC), while John Powell (Subaru Impreza WRC S12) has closed to within eight points of Hill; these are also the top three in the Class Championship in Modified 8-WRC.
In the Overall Class Championship, the contest is much tighter: Bourne is also top here, but only one point ahead of Production 4 leader Barry Gale (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX); third equal are Gale’s father Freddie (Toyota Corolla RunX) and Mark Hamilton (Ford Escort MkII), respectively the leaders of M7 and SuperModified 11 – they are tied on 98 points, 13 behind Gale Junior, with his P4 arch-rival Geoff Noel (Evo IX) fifth on 91.
While most class leaders have a comfortable advantage in the standings, a tremendous battle has developed in the merged M5 & M6. After Shell V-Power King of the Hill, Edward Corbin (Daihatsu Charmant) was 40 points ahead of M5 leader Sean Cox (Suzuki Swift), tied for second with Jamal Brathwaite (M6 Mitsubishi Mirage).
In an uncharacteristically bad Sol Rally Barbados, however, Corbin failed to score any points, an outcome made worse by the fact that each day counts as a separate round; Brathwaite won M6 on Saturday and looked set to finish second to Scotland’s Kenny Hall (Ford Puma) on Sunday, moving to within four points of Corbin. They arrived at the Shell V-Power SuperSpecial at Simpson Motors separated by 11.4 seconds, but Hall lost 15secs when he wrong-slotted on the first run, handing Brathwaite the lead – the Chicken Pen Racing graduate held his nerve on the second run, beating Hall by just over half-a-second, to win M6 and draw level on points with Corbin.

The Karcher Summer Stages (July 24) is organised by the Barbados Rally Club (BRC), which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007; it is round eight of the Virgin Atlantic BRC Driver’s and Class Championships. An historic category has been added to accommodate competitors in the second event of the 2010 Barbados Historic Rally Carnival, who will run at the back of the field.

Virgin Atlantic BRC Driver’s Championship
Provisional positions after round 7:
1st Paul Bourne (M8-WRC Banks/Chefette/LIME/Virgin Atlantic Ford Focus WRC07), 110 points
2nd Roger Hill (M8-WRC Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC), 81pts
3rd John Powell - TDAD (M8-WRC Shell Helix Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 73pts
4th Roger Skeete (M8-WRC Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre/Michelin/Warrens Motors Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 56pts
5th Barry Gale (P4 redlinefuels.com/Autolink/Maxi Malta/Rockstar Energy Drink/Metal Craft Works/Weetabix/Bella Beauty Supply Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 53pts
6th Geoffrey Noel (P4 Globe Finance Inc/Mix 96.9/Sentry Insurance Brokers/Dewalt Tools/Automotive Art/Ezone Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 45pts
7th Ian Warren (SM10 Automotive Art/Shell V-Power/Simpson Motors Suzuki Swift), 41pts
8th Dean Serrao (M8-WRC Subaru Impreza WRC S9 & P4 Amalgamated Security Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 36pts
9th Sean Gill (M8-WRC Simpson Motors/Shell V-Power/Automotive Art Mitsubishi WRC), 32pts
10th Mark Hamilton (SM11 PowerMaster Batteries/Consolidated Finance/Valvoline Oil/Kumho Tires Ford Escort MkII), 29pts
etc

Virgin Atlantic BRC Class Championship
Modified 8-WRC: 1st Bourne, 112pts; 2nd Hill, 81pts; 3rd Powell, 73pts; etc
Modified 8-A: 1st Michael Worme (Cot Media Group/Dingolay/Speedline Performance Auto/Ullyetts Machine Shop Service/Slowboy Racing Subaru Impreza STi), 26pts; 2nd Graeme Finlayson - SCO (www.racedandrallied.com Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III RS), 12pts
Production 4: 1st B Gale, 111pts; 2nd, Noel, 91pts; 3rd Serrao, 52pts; etc
SuperModified 11: 1st Hamilton, 98pts; 2nd Brian Gill (Aqua Pur/Electric Avenue BMW M3), 54pts; 3rd Sammy Cumberbatch (F Taylor Insurance/Williams Industries/AutoLink BMW M3), 49pts; etc
SM10: 1st Warren, 88pts; 2nd Logan Watson (The Unknown Entity/Corbz Workz/Big John’s Ford Escort MkI), 40pts; 3rd Eric Allamby (Shelbury Construction/ACT Sand Blasting/Container Services Mitsubishi Lancer), 29pts; etc
SM9: 1st Josh Read (Automotive Art/Baram Services Toyota Starlet), 71pts; 2nd Neil Armstrong (Pit Bull Energy Drink/Hankook/Gunk/Electric Avenue Toyota Starlet), 48pts; 3rd Neil Corbin (Nassco/Jason Jones/Auto Solutions Toyota Starlet), 47pts; etc
M7: 1st Freddie Gale (Gale’s Hatcheries/redlinefuels.com/Nassco Toyota Corolla RunX), 98pts; 2nd David Brewster (SRG Engineering/Castrol Peugeot 205GTi), 42pts; 3rd Adrian Linton (Ravensden/Garbage Gobbler/Morris Straker Construction Vauxhall Astra GSi), 40pts; etc
M6 & M5 merged: 1st equal Jamal Brathwaite (M6 AM Electrical/FG Wilson/Autoplus Motors/Meridian Windows/Chicken Pen Racing/Ellesmere Quarries/D2 Racing Suspension/Avon Products/Cutters of Barbados/Freekz Customz Mitsubishi Mirage RS) & Edward Corbin (M6 Automotive Art/Klark-Odio/Corbins Garage/JVM Signage Daihatsu Charmant), 76pts; 3rd Sean Cox (M5 Simpson Motors Suzuki Swift), 62pts; etc
P3: 1st Sean T Field (Field Insurance Brokers/Castrol/Ackee Tree/AM Realty Services/Landscapes in Harmony Peugeot 306), 36pts
P2 & P1 merged: 1st Fabien Clarke (P2 Barbados Business Listings/Crimson Jade/RCR Tours/Bovell Auto Repair/Big P Customs Brokers/De Fx-Bar Suzuki Ignis Sport), 52pts; 2nd Miguel Toppin (P1 Toyota Starlet), 13pts

For further information:
e-mail - robin@bradfax.com