“WE WILL be back”
Calling it one of those things, Jamaica’s Jeff Panton, who with co-driver Mike Fennell Jr crashed last Sunday on the opening stage during the second day of SOL Rally Barbados, said he is in pain, but glad that his family is in Barbados with him to give him the added support needed at this time.
“My fiance and my mother are here and the doctors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital are doing a great job on me. I want to thank them and all the fans, who have been enquiring about me since the events of last Sunday,” Panton said from his bed in the Surgical Intensive Unit of the QEH, yesterday.
Recalling the events of last Sunday, he said he remembers going into the right-hand curve and the car drifting far to the right and then flipping back to the left and colliding with something.
“Everything happened very fast,” he noted.
The Jamaican driver, who had to be cut from the Rubis/ Sandals Barbados/KIGFord Focus WRC06, which was extensively damaged, was chasing his fifth successive Sol Rally Barbados title.
He said it is motorsport and is one of those things, but sent congratulations to winner Dane Skeete and Tyler Mayhew, who he was trailing by 64 seconds at the time on the opening Sagicor Stage of the rally.
Panton suffered nine cracked ribs and two broken collarbones as well as soft tissue damage, but X-rays and CT scans showed no internal injuries. He will remain in Queen Elizabeth Hospital until sometime next week for further tests before he could be discharged.
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