A new two-wheel drive lap record and clean sweeps in six groups were the highlights of the Barbados Auto Racing League’s (BARL) Easter race meet at Bushy Park on Easter Monday.
Stuart Williams, driving a Williams Equipment/WHH Racing Hilti Power Tools Lotus Elise, set a new lap record for two-wheel drive cars of 40.866 seconds in the first race for Group 3 Class I-4B cars and set the tone for what was to come as he was among an illustrious group of drivers making clean sweeps in their respective groups during the day’s proceedings.
In front of a moderate crowd and after a 10 a.m. start, Williams held off spirited challenges from Steve King in the King’s Auto Parts Nissan GTR and the experienced Doug Maloney in the Paints Plus Audi Quattro, especially in the final meeting of the group, during which Maloney had been able to snatch the lead from Williams at the start of the race.
The veteran Maloney appeared to have the race well in control and to be seeking to settle himself, but as the drivers passed the pit entrance curve heading for the “esses” during the third lap, Maloney misschanged.
Williams, who had been in hot pursuit, performed a clinical pass on the inside and never looked back, going on to win and complete a clean sweep of the races allotted to the group.
Maloney, who finished second to Williams throughout the day, snatch the honours at stake among Group 4B competitors as he, too, won all his races on an exciting day’s racing at the well known racing facility.
Kurt Thompson performed a similar feat in Group 4A, in another well prepared Glassesco/NKM Clothing/Bio-Bath Beautify Spa Honda Civic CRX.
Competitors seemed to have no answer to the might of the Civic, and it was a straight fight for the lesser places between drivers Andre Waithe, Daryl Clarke and Jerry Leach.
And while Williams, Maloney and Thompson were settling issues in their respective groups, Peter Small in a Honda Civic was showing that he, too, was out to be a top performer on the league’s opening day.
Small picked good lines as he frustrated the efforts of the more experienced Tyrone Martindale in a similar machine, the Mark’s Auto Spares Honda Civic CRX, Shawn Boxill and Robert Gill in Group 2B, while Quincy Jones, in a Castrol Toyota Starlet, as if following his more illustrious counterparts in the higher groups, made a clean sweep among drivers in ICBL Group 2A.
A former group champion Sean Russell, driving a Honda Civic; Stuart Knaggs; and the recently promoted Ryan Francis as well as Nicholas St Hill all felt the might of the Starlet, as Jones reeled off win after win.
But it was perhaps Anderson Roachford in ReZult’s Auto Shop Group 1B who started the clean sweep runs in the day’s opener as he disposed of the hard-nosed Gregory Farnum, Peter Bryan, Ryan O. Wood, Peter Gibbs and another former group champion, Hanief Gooding, who was back in action after a layoff.
Another driver catching the eye on Monday was Mark “Ointment” Thompson in the Glassesco Toyota Starlet, who after upsetting overall champion driver Edward Corbin and taking the “pole” went on to grab two wins.
