TTRC Rally in the West Indeed!- 13th October 2002
Article by Duane Boodasingh.
Photography by Duane Boodasingh
Cameras courtesy E-volve New Media.

Where the hell I going? Anything after this is Tetron!!! Well that was my thought Sunday morning trying to find the location of this TTRC Championship event. Forgive me, "ah from south", so I dont know anything this far North-West. Sure enough just around NIPDEC's warehouses there was some serious activity with a number or tents and cars. I pulled in, loaded up the camera and tried to find my way into the stage. Finding a good sharp corner here was going to be hard... There were so many.

The big guns had surely come out in full force and that showed in the spectators' anxiety in between runs. There was no short supply of spectators either, this event having one of the highest spectator turnouts I have seen in a long while.

This would be the Trinidad & Tobago Rally Club's final championship stages rally for 2002, "Rally In The West… Indeed!!" sponsored by Josef’s Sports Café, RallyMac Motors and Big Boyz Toyz.

While some people may think that Chaguaramas is a new area for stage rallying, the older heads would know that this stage was last run in 1999. The spectators came out in hordes supporting their favorite drivers and cars. Although Fawaz Mohammed and Ishwar Patel from the Castrol Team had already wrapped up the TTRC Championship 2002, the competition was as fierce as it could have been on Sunday. The scene was set, with the battle of the AWD cars being the title bout. John Powell and Peter Morris in their Evos III and VI respectively, who at one time only had to compete against each other, now had to fend off Barry Mckenzie, Keverne McShine and Richard Ramsingh in their Subaru Imprezas.

The first stage saw all the competitors taking their time feeling out the unfamiliar terrain and hoping that their tire choice was the right one. Just over 45 seconds separated the fastest car from the slowest car after this stage. But in the main event, round one went to John Powell with a time of 2 minutes 42 seconds. After his crash at Borde Narve earlier this year, Vishal Dhanraj pushed his Esso sponsored Nissan B13 to lead the Group 1 cars after the first stage.

Stage 2 again went to John Powell, with a blistering 2 minute 15 second run. The group 1 battle was heating up as Shelford Robinson fought back. In Group 1 the top two cars were only separated by 1 second at this point. By this time all the yachties were awake and wondering what was going on. Peter’s anti-lag echoing through the Northern Range even brought a few army personnel out. Did they think they were under attack?

Stage 3 saw Peter closing in on John’s lead, narrowing the gap to 18 seconds. The Subarus were all fighting for 3rd place at this point. Barry who had clutch and gearbox problems from the start now had to face the imminent rain without windshield wipers. Richard who has been suffering from a lack of boost since earlier in the year just couldn’t keep up, and Keverne who is accustomed driving Rolls Royce powered BWee jets, just couldn’t close in on the lead, the Evos had already accumulated. Kudos to Barry though…. he had the crowd on his side at this point, with his 4 wheel drifts and innovative brush-cutting techniques.

By Stage 4 all the competitors were slowing down with the heavy rainfall. From reports after the rally, Barry and his co-driver Ainsley Lochan stuck their necks out… literally… on this stage. Stage 4 also saw Erica Jobity-Dinnoo in her return to stage competition showing the guys in group 1 that she did not forget how to push the Castrol sponsored Toyota Starlet to its limits.

Peter finally beat John’s time on stage 5, reducing the lead by 2 seconds. Group 1 competition saw both Franklin Seegobin and Vishal also starting to reduce the lead that Shelford had accumulated.

The atmosphere at the start of the final stage of the day was like that of a joust in medieval times. But instead of lances and swords the fighters were armed with 300hp, AWD marvels. The rain was starting to ease up and the competitors starting later in the order would have the visibility advantage. Both Keverene and John cruised home with fairly slow times. But the day belonged to Peter. He brought the Evo VI home with a 2 minute 39 second time on stage 6, beating John’s time by 22 seconds and taking the overall lead by just 1 second. Now that’s close competition!!

The event was definitely worthwhile for spectators, competitors and sponsors, it provided an overall fun day with a sneak peek at the competition for 2003. We all look forward to the start of next year’s competition in February.

Check out www.rallyboyz.com for results!!