Tyre strategy was the difference between winning and losing at the Motoring Club Barbados Inc.’s (MCBI) McChlery Designs Just Bring It Speed Event from Isolation Road to Dark Hole, St Andrew, last Sunday.
Reading the weather conditions correctly and deciding whether to use dry, wet or intermediate tyres paid dividends for some of the drivers, most notably, Roger “The Sheriff” Skeete, who was at the wheel of a well prepared Subaru Impreza WRC S12.
He posted the fastest times on all three official runs.
In fact, all of the winning times returned by all the drivers were achieved during the first official run, with Skeete posting the fastest overall time of the day of two minutes 28.79 seconds. He was a shade better than Neil Armstrong, in his Suzuki SX4 WRC, who returned a time of two minutes 29.68 seconds.
Under overcast skies and after a late start, the 30 drivers and their respective crews were sent scrambling to make tyre changes after the heavens opened and brought intermittent and, at times, heavy showers to the four-kilometre long course soon after drivers had completed the practice run and the first official run.
Despite the conditions, some drivers did catch the eye, among them Dean Serroa, in the Subaru Impreza WRC S9, who was third fastest with a time of two minutes 30.98 seconds. He again got the better of the experienced Roger “The Ninja” Hill, in the Toyota Corolla WRC, who finished eighth overall with a time of 2:34.92, and Dane Skeete, son of the event’s winner, at the wheel of the Peugeot 306 Maxi.
The younger Skeete grabbed fourth spot with a time of two minutes 35.51 seconds and also took along the honours at stake in Super Modified (SM) 11.
Josh Read, locked in battle for the two-wheel drive category, took fifth place with 2:37.07 in his Toyota Starlet. His performance helped him finish ahead of the club’s overall championship leader, Rhett Watson, in the BMW M3, who posted two minutes 40.99 seconds to take sixth spot.
Last year’s double club champion Neil Corbin, driving a Toyota Starlet, defied the wet conditions and held on to the M6 with a time of 2:43.06, while Edward Corbin drove away with M7 honours with 2:45.73 in the Toyota Corolla RunX.
Mark Kinch, in a Toyota Starlet, won S9 with 2:54.62 seconds; Trevor Mapp, in the Mitsubishi Mirage, won the Clubman Class with three minutes 10.44 seconds; and David Brewster, in a Peugeot 205GTi, carried off the Historic Class, posting three minutes 15.08 seconds.
