Valvoline Rally 2013 2
Valvoline has joined forces with Automotive Art and the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) for the second year as title sponsor of Club's first special stage rally of the season, which ran off on Sunday, April 28. The only tarmac rally before the island's premier event, it provides a valuable opportunity chance to gauge one another's performance.
Roger Skeete and Louis Venezia claimed their first victory for the season in the Sol/Michelin/Simpson Motors/Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre Subaru Impreza WRC S12 in Sunday's (April 28) Valvoline Rally. Despite some challenges, including the rain which fell in the afternoon, the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) successfully ran all 10 planned stages at two venues in the north of the island.
With Armstrong second on all but one, Skeete was fastest on the five afternoon stages, to claim a winning margin of 66 seconds over WRC-2 class-winners Roger Hill and Graham Gittens in the Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC.
Third were Josh Read and Mark Jordan (Stihl/Gliptone/Hankook/SDRR/Weetabix/Ro
yal Purple/EZone Toyota Starlet), who had prevailed in a thrilling four-car battle for two-wheel-drive honours, which was settled on the day's very last stage.
Reunited with his RB05-winning co-driver Max Ferri, Roger Mayers was fastest on stage one in the Chefette/Digicel/Pennzoil/Illusion Graphics/Hankook WR Starlet, with Ian and Robert Warren (Simpson Motors/Automotive Art Suzuki Swift) second and Read third. While Read asserted himself on stage two, Mayers retained the lead by just eight-tenths.
Mayers was fastest on the three remaining morning stages, building a margin of 10secs over Read by lunchtime, with Rhett Watson/Sean Corbin (Oreo/Chips Ahoy!/Armstrong Agencies/Power King Batteries/Unknown Entity/Hankook Tyres/SpringBoard Marketing Platforms/in support of Little Pink Gift BMW M3) third and Warren fourth.
Watson topped the two-wheel-drive times on the afternoon's first stage, as did Daryl Clarke and Russell Brancker (Amir's Fresh Chicken/Ellco/Mum's Pasta/P & N Hardware/Robert's Manufacturing Honda Civic) on stage eight; they had earlier missed stages, once when the bonnet blew up and smashed the windscreen, and were continuing with no screen and wearing protective goggles.
Read and Mayers were second and third behind Watson, Read clipping a second off the leader's advantage . . . and that pattern continued, Read benefitting from the damp conditions, faster by nearly 5secs on stage nine to bring the gap down to 2.19secs. Both pulled out all the stops, Read faster by 2.26secs to win by seven-hundredths.
Read said: "We really could not match Mayers' pace in Canefield, but when the rain came with three runs in Dark Hole, it worked much to my advantage and I enjoyed it." Mayers added: "I had the upper hand on Josh in the dry, but he took back out the time in the wet. The range of conditions has shown us all the areas we have to work on." Warren is another with work to do: "We have a very troubling brake problem, as the brake pedal went to the floor at some point in almost every run. We have to use the break now to definitely rectify this."
Returning to competition, replacing the injured Logan Watson in the Ritz/Club Social/Armstrong Agencies/Power King Batteries/Unknown Entity/Hankook Tyres/SpringBoard Marketing Platforms/in support of Little Pink Gift BMW M3, Trevor Manning and Derek Edwards finished ninth overall and second in SuperModified 12. Manning said: "We took the day pretty easy and settled into the car later into the day. The car is really reliable and only took a tank of gas and a change of tires when the skies opened. We will be doing King of the Hill and Rally Barbados, and we may just see more of Electric Micey than Micey!"
Valvoline Rally
Provisional results -- overall:
1st Roger Skeete/Louis Venezia (WRC-1 Sol/Michelin/Simpson Motors/Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 26m 58.50s
2nd Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (WRC-2 Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC), 28m 04.47s
3rd Josh Read/Mark Jordan (SM10 Stihl/Gliptone/Hankook/SDRR/Weetabix/Royal Purple/EZone Toyota Starlet), 28m 31.32s
4th Roger Mayers/Max Ferri (SM10 Chefette/Digicel/Pennzoil/Illusion Graphics/Hankook WR Starlet), 28m 31.39s
5th Ian Warren/Robert Warren (SM10 Simpson Motors/Automotive Art Suzuki Swift), 28m 51.10s
6th Dean Serrao/Josh Delmas (WRC-2 Sugar Ultra Lounge Subaru Impreza WRC S9), 29m 34.80s
7th Neil Corbin/Matthew Staffner (M6 Nassco/Jason Jones/Auto Solutions/Castrol Toyota Starlet), 30m 05.02s
8th Norman Catwell/Dario Hoyte (M7 Ellesmere Quarries/John Hardman Engineering/Elite Transmissions Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk3), 30m 35.50s
9th Trevor Manning/Derek Edwards (SM12 Ritz/Club Social/Armstrong Agencies/Power King Batteries/Unknown Entity/Hankook Tyres/SpringBoard Marketing Platforms/in support of Little Pink Gift BMW M3), 30m 38.02s
10th Andrew Jones/Alex Whitehead (SM11 Lucozade/AP Jones Pharmacy Ford Escort MkII), 32m 25.75s
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