ROGER “The Sheriff” Skeete had a new deputy but all his guns were still blazing as he ruled the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Valvoline Stages Rally for the second consecutive year yesterday.
Accompanied by new navigator Stuart Maloney in the Sol/LIME/Simpson Motors/Michelin/Williams Trading Inc. Subaru Impreza WRC S12, Skeete got the better of the competition to emerge winner of the BRC’s last warm-up rally before Sol Rally Barbados, May 30 to June 1.
Skeete and Maloney returned a total elapsed time of two hours, 17 minutes, 61 seconds over the ten stages which saw 32 cars starting at Greenland Plantation in St Andrew at 9:31 a.m. and finishing at the same location just before 4 p.m..
They eclipsed arch-rival Paul “The Surfer” Bourne and Englishman Tom Woodburn, in the Chefette/Banks Ford Focus WRC 07, who returned a time of two hours, 19 minutes, 85 seconds.
The Motoring Club’s champion driver, Josh Read, and co-driver Mark Jordan, in the Stihl/Gliptone/Hankook Tyres/Weetabix/Royal Purple/EZone/Coffee Bean Toyota Starlet, returned two hours, 20 minutes, 41 seconds to be third.
This feat helped them to win Super Modified Ten and fastest two-wheel drive in the rally which included stages in Luke Hill and Four Hill in St Peter as well as Pickering in St Lucy.
Rhett Watson and navigator James Hutchinson were fourth in the Power King Batteries/Carter’s Pitstop/Gliptone/Stihl/Packaging Centre/The Unknown Entity/In support of Little Pink Gift BMW M3 with a time of 2:28.12 hours. They also won Super Modified 12.
Roger Hill and Graham Gittens were fifth in the Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC with a total elapsed time of 2:28.41 hours.
The pair of Mark Thompson and Kurt Seabra, in a GpN Automotive Art/Glassesco Hardware/Stag Beer/NKM Clothing/Bio Beauty Day Spa/Local Speed Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, won Group N and rounded out the top six with a time of 2:43.18 hours.
The fancied pair of Neil Armstrong and Barry Ward, in the Monster/ Sol/Chefette/Digicel/Virgin Atlantic/Gunk/Hankook Tyres/Redline Fuels/
Simpson Finance/Simpson Motors Suzuki Sx4 WRC, who won Rally Trinidad a fortnight ago, crashed out on Stage 6.
