CHEFETTE APRIL SAFARI RUNS OFF ON SATURDAY

Posted on April 26th, 2017.

Cozier leads Shelbury Construction Trophy points

Twelve crews are making final preparations for the second round of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Chefette MudDogs Safari & Safari Novice Championships, which is set for this Saturday (April 29). Postponed from earlier this month, the Chefette April Safari will start and finish at the restaurant chain’s Wildey, St Michael, outlet.

Jean-Marc Cozier and Andrew Croney lead the Driver and Navigator standings respectively after winning the first round in March in the unusual Honda Pioneer. Wayne Manning and Willie Hinds (Black Bess Group Suzuki Samurai) are second, with four-time Champions Leslie Alleyne and Chris O'Neal (Simpson Motors/Shell Spirax/Shell Rimula/Maxxis Isuz D-Max) currently lying in third place.

MudDogs Chairman Ricky Holder, who is also the route-setter for this event, said: “Again, I must thank Chefette for their continued support. They have been with the MudDogs now since 2010 and their support is invaluable, particularly their sponsorship of this weekend’s event, as well as the Championship overall.

“I have been joined in the preparations for the event by Richard Johnson, one of our marshals, who wanted to try his hand at setting a route. I am also pleased to see our first Novice crew of the year entered – hopefully, we can encourage some more new faces, particularly with the Club’s 60th Anniversary event coming up in June.”

The first crew will leave the start at Chefette Wildey, St Michael, at 2.00pm on Saturday, to tackle two routes in the south and south-east of the island. The dinner halt will be at around 5.30pm at Chefette Six Roads, St Philip, with the finish at approximately 10.30pm, back at Chefette Wildey.

There are two Driver Challenges, both during route one, which will count towards the new-for-2017 Shelbury Construction Trophy; the first will be behind Fort George, around 20 minutes after the Wildey start, the second by the coconut trees at Edgecumbe Plantation at approximately 4.30pm. Cozier also won both Driver Challenges in the season-opener, so has a head start in the points table.

Saturday’s event is the second of five staged between March and November, which qualify for the 2017 Championship. As before, crews are required to compete in four out of the five Safaris to be eligible for year-end Championship points; if they compete in all five Safaris, then their best four scores will count.

The Prizegiving will be at the Barbados Clay Target Shooting Association (BCTSA) Club House at Searles, Christ Church, on the evening of Thursday, May 4.