Roger “The Sheriff” Skeete made it two in a row as he dominated the Motoring Club Barbados Inc.’s speed event recently.
On the 3.5-kilometre course from Isolation Road to Baxters/White Hill, St Andrew, Skeete, the Sol Rally Barbados champion driver, made no mistakes as he brushed aside the challenges from a field entered.
He returned a time of 2 minutes 1.36 seconds in a well-prepared Subaru Impreza WRC S12. He was fastest driver on all three runs allotted to competitors on the day. In the other two runs, he had times of 2:03.23 and 2:02.70 over the long and twisting course.
Arch-rival Paul “The Surfer” Bourne in the Ford Focus WRC07 looked good over the course, but had to settle for second place with a personal best time of 2:02.08 seconds.
In the event billed as a renewing of the rivalry among two wheel drive competition, both front and rear, Neil Armstrong kept up his winning ways by being the fastest two-wheel drive competitor.
At the wheel of his Toyota Starlet, Armstrong was third fastest with a time of 2 minutes 5.13 seconds and took along the honours at stake for Supermodified 10, ahead of Ian “WeeWee” Warren in the Suzuki Swift who was fourth fastest overall and second in Supermodified 10 with 2 minutes 9.54 seconds.
But the day also belonged to hometown boy Calvin Briggs in the Ford Escort MkII who was supported by the no less than 23 businesses located in St Andrew. However, he was not able to transform the support he had from sponsors into winning and finished fourth in Supermodified 11 with a time of 2 minutes 29.52 seconds.
That group was won by Sammy Cumberbatch in a BMW M3 who had a time of 2 minutes 12.34 seconds and was the fastest of the rear wheel drive competitors, ahead of his brother Owen in a similar machine whose time was 2 minutes 13.80 seconds.
The Cumberbatch brothers were fifth and sixth respectively, while Alex Whitehead finished seventh with a time of two minutes 14.20 seconds.
Young Dane Skeete, son of the event’s winner, carried off the honours in Modified 6 with a time of 2 minutes 15.25 seconds and was eighth overall, while former double club champion driver Adrian Linton in the Vauxhall Astra GSi won Supermodified 7 and was ninth overall in 2:18.19. Jamal Brathwaite gave a good account of himself to be second in Modified 6 and rounded out the top ten with a time of two minutes 25.63 seconds.