Roger HILL and Graham Gittens in the Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC got the better of the opposition and won the Motoring Club Barbados Inc.’s (MCBI) Rally Of The Sun And Stars last weekend.
Overcast conditions and the absence of the foreign competitors did little to dampen the spirits of the competitors and Hill and Gittens were quickly into their stride from the opening Armag Rentals stage from French Village to Four Hills and turned in the best total elapsed time of 12 minutes 49.91 seconds to upset the highly fancied Sol Rally Barbados champions, the pair of Roger Skeete and Louis Venezia in the DaCosta Mannings Auto Centre/Michelin/Warrens Motors Subaru Impreza WRC S12.
They finished second with a time of 12 minutes 54.92 seconds.
The Warren brothers, Ian and Robert, in the Automotive Art/Shell V-Power/Simpson Motors Suzuki Swift continued their good performance winning their group and finishing third fastest overall with a time of 13 minutes 25.81 seconds.
They were also the fastest two-wheel drive competitors and were ahead of another two-wheel drive pair, Josh Read and Mark Jordan, in the Automotive Art/Baram Services Toyota Starlet who returned a time of 13 minutes 34.68 seconds to be fifth overall.
Barry Gale and Cherie Edghill in the redlinefuels.com/Autolink/Maxi Malta/Rockstar Energy Drink/Metal Craft Works/Weetabix/Bella Beauty Supply Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX finished sixth with a time of 13 minutes 48.36 seconds.
But seventh-place Mark Hamilton and new navigator Chris Maloney were impressive over the stages and were caught airborne during the evening’s action while returning a time of 13 minutes 51.43 seconds.
However, the pair of Justin Campbell and Juan Watts in a BMW escaped unhurt after they crashed on the Diamond Corner – Gays stage of the rally which had been reduced from 12 stages to eight by the organisers.
Seventeen cars came under starters’ orders for the event which started and ended at Greenland Plantation, St Andrew.
