Pace notes for both night and day.
That’s the call from former Barbados Rally Club (BRC) champion Roger ‘The Ninja’ Hill as he and other drivers and co-drivers prepare for the club’s Winter Rally on Saturday and Sunday.
“With the weather as it is these days you will have to do pace notes for night and day. You can’t leave anything to chance, it is going to be a dry weekend,” the WRC 2 driver said.
Hill, who will be at the wheel of the Toyota Corolla WRC with Graham Gittens as his co-driver, lauded the BRC for staging the 12-stage event at the end of the season which has attracted a top class field.
They will be joined by regional regulars, including Jamaica’s Jeff Panton, who currently leads the BRC champion driver’s title chase, and co-driver Mike Fennell (Jr), in what promises to be an explosive climax to the domestic season.
Two-time winner of Sol Rally Barbados, Britons Paul Bird and Rob Swann, who finished second this year, are also down to face the starter.
The BRC Winter Rally will open with two special stages at Vaucluse Raceway on Friday evening. Each crew will cover two laps of the nearly three-kilometre Rally Sprint track on each run, starting at 6 p.m.
The organisers have given competitors adequate time to resolve any overnight issues by starting Saturday’s stages from Dark Hole to Spring Vale at 2:20 p.m., alternating with Hangmans Hill to Lion Castle, each over five kilometres.
After the dinner break, the restart will be at 7 p.m., with three runs each of a 4.50-kilometre stage from Four Hills to French Village, and a downhill run from Canefield to Hangmans Hill (5.90-kilometre) to complete the day’s action.
The Hangmans Hill stages, both north and south-bound, will run through Vaucluse Raceway using a new configuration, including an element of the infield karting track, also the Rallycross Joker Lap, constructed earlier this year in the south-east corner of the facility.
There is all to race for in the BRC Championship, as most class battles remain unresolved.
With no dropped scores this year and an enhanced points structure for the final round – a class win will earn 28 points (up from 20), second 23, third 20, down to 10 points for 10th place – championship hopefuls will need to ‘up their game’ if they want to improve their positions. (TT)
