Night stages set for summer rally

Night stages laid out at Pickerings, St Lucy and Turners Hall, St Andrew in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Karcher Summer Stages on Saturday are expected to bring out the best in strategies among crews as the chase continues for the Virgin Atlantic BRC Class Championship.After the 2 p.m. start at Greenland Agricultural Station, drivers and navigators are set to dispose of three runs each downhill through Turners Hall, then northbound through Pickerings, before the dinner halt at around 6 p.m.  at Greenland Agricultural Station.The restart is scheduled for 7 p.m., with a further three runs through each stage in the opposite direction, before the finish at approximately 11 p.m. back at Greenland Agricultural Station.Close battles are expected to be the order of the day/night event with  Paul “The Surfer” Bourne in the Banks/Chefette/LIME/Virgin Atlantic Ford Focus WRC07, holding 110 points ahead of Roger “The Ninja” Hill, in the Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC, who has 81 points, and journeyman driver John “Penti” Powell, in the Shell Helix Subaru Impreza WRC S12 with 73.Sol Rally Barbados 2010 winner Roger “The Sheriff” Skeete, who has 56 points, will be driving the Dacosta Mannings Auto Centre/Michelin/Warrens Motors Subaru Impreza WRC S12.However, in the overall championship, conditions are much closer, with Bourne only enjoying a one-point lead on Production 4 leader Barry Gale, while tied in third place are Gale’s father Freddie, in the Toyota Corolla RunX, and Mark Hamilton, driver of the PowerMaster Batteries/Consolidated Finance/Valvoline Oil/Kumho Tyres Ford Escort MkII. The leaders of M7 and SuperModified 11 respectively, are on 98 points each.Geoff Noel, a P4 driver, has 91 points in fifth place, and SM10 leader Ian “WeeWee” Warren rounds out the top six with 88 points.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 p.m. on Thursday.An historic category has been added to accommodate competitors in the second event of the 2010 Barbados Historic Rally Carnival, which will run at the back of the BRC Summer Stages field.As in previous years, when Pickerings was used for the BRC Summer Nights Tarmac Sprint, the area around the plantation yard will be floodlit.