A nearly full slate of pairs is expected to face the starter for the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Summer Nights Tarmac Stages Rally on Saturday.
A day/night event, it will bring to an end a two-month break for competitors after this year’s Sol Rally Barbados in the club’s Virgin Atlantic Driver’s And Class Championships, with six of the ten rounds now completed and led by Modified Seven driver Daryl Clarke.
The rally has been set to be decided between Pickerings and Hope Road, St Lucy, and pencilled in to start at 5 p.m. outside St Lucy’s Church.
Three stages are to be run three times in that direction (Pickerings-Hope Road) before the dinner stop, and then be reversed to run in the opposite direction after sundown.
Entries will close today ahead of the briefing meeting to be held at the Barbados Clay Target Shooting Association Clubhouse at Searles, Christ Church, at 7 p.m. tomorrow.
It’s the seventh round of the club’s 2012 Virgin Atlantic Championships and comes at a crucial time in the competition.
In the overall class championship battle, M7 leader Daryl Clarke, at the wheel of the Ellco Rentals/Mom’s Pasta Products/MQI/Roberts Manufacturing Honda Civic, retains his early advantage with a total of 108 points.
Tied for second on 103 points are Toyota Starlet driver and competition secretary Neil Corbin – the leader of M6 – and club chairman Geoff Noel – the Production 4 leader – in the Globe Finance/Sentry Insurance Brokers/Cargo Solutions International/Mix 96.9FM/CIAC Air Conditioners Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX.
The leader of SuperModified 11, Logan Watson (BMW M3), is a further three points behind in fourth.
The competitor’s lowest score is to be dropped at the end of the year, and applying that rule would shake up the Top 10 considerably as both Noel and Watson would move ahead of Corbin, tied in second place three points behind Clarke, while the spread of points across the Top 10 would be slashed from 30 to 19.
Paul “The Surfer” Bourne leads the four-wheel-drive title chase, six points ahead of Gill, with Noel and Roger Skeete (Subaru Impreza WRC S12) third and fourth, respectively.
The two-wheel-drive points standings are even closer as both Armstrong and Watson have 75.
Standings after Round 6
1st: Daryl Clarke (M7 Ellco Rentals/Mom’s Pasta Products/MQI/Roberts Manufacturing Honda Civic), 108 points
2nd: Neil Corbin (M6 Nassco/Jason Jones/Auto Solutions/Castrol Toyota Starlet) & Geoffrey Noel (P4 Globe Finance/Sentry Insurance Brokers/Cargo Solutions International/Mix 96.9FM/CIAC Air Conditioners Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 103 points
4th: Logan Watson (SM11 Oreo/Chips Ahoy!/Club Social/Formula1 High Performance Auto Care Products/Liquid Wrench/Sign Depot/The Unknown Entity/In support of Little Pink Gift BMW M3), 100 points
5th: Jeremy Croney (Clubman ReMax Lifestyles/Sweet Temptations/Sign Station/Gunk Peugeot 206), 93 points
6th: Paul Bourne (M8-WRC Chefette/LIME/Slam 101/MQI/Banks/Castrol Ford Focus WRC07), 90 points
7th: Avinash Chatrani (M8-A Electric Avenue/Hankook/Solder Seal Gunk/Niagra Water/Sign Station Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI), 85 points
8th: Allan Maynard (SM9 Marshal Trading/Roberts Manufacturing Toyota Starlet), 84 points
9th: Carlos Edwards (SM9 Courts I-Finance/Enermax Toyota Starlet), 81 points
10th: Neil Armstrong (SM10 Chefette/Lubriguard/Hankook Tyres/Nassco/Redline Fuels/ARMAG Rentals Toyota Starlet) and Sean Gill (M8-WRC Simpson Motors/Shell V-Power/Automotive Art/Monster Energy Drink Suzuki SX4 WRC), 78 points
