BF Goodrich / Ultra / Stag Rally Preysal - 12th March 2006
Photography by Devi Nath, Gerrard Wilson, Christian Cozier and Wayne Lee
Article by Barry McKenzie

And just like that the long awaited High Speed Preysal Stages Rally was over on a beautiful Sunny Sunday and it seems a repeat of last year in both the (2) wheel and (4) wheel drive class. Oh shucks, I think I got ahead of myself, let's start from the beginning.

TTRC'S first Speed Stage for 2006 got on the way in spectacular fashion with a Rally Launch and Scrutineering session at QUICK SERVICE Centre (BF Goodrich) at their Wrightson Road location on Thursday afternoon in conjunction with Stag and NP Ultra as co-sponsors. There were a lot of ‘giveaways' and cold Stag beverages galore at the launch. The Stag Girls were amazingly everywhere you looked with T Shirts, Stickers and a fresh beverage for all at hand!!! General Manager of Quick Service Sebastian Proux was gracious enough to provide light refreshments for all our guests and competitors. It was truly a fitting launch for the Rally Club and provides a hint at the level we are taking this Sport to in 2006.

New Stages for 2006
Well finally we have a new stage. "The Snake Run" as it was fondly called, is located just off the highway east of the Couva flyover.  It features a beautiful climb that snakes (hence the name) it's way up the hill covering 3.2 kilometers with an amazing 37 turns up fast 90's, and flat out blind brows that all turn left or right. An absolutely 'mad stage", the Snake Run is one of the best proving ground to test a driver's mettle.

The ‘SEEGO' Super Special was also run on Sunday afternoon.  This stage while covering 3.4 kilometers is completely different to the Snake Run. With its twists and turns, most drivers barely got their cars into 3rd gear on the Snake Run, but on the Seego Super Special some drivers bragged of doing close to 140mph on the long straights.

The rally started at 11.00am half an hour later than the actual start time, this was to accommodate the constant stream of spectators who all wanted to get a good vantage point on the stage. At one point on the Snake Run, spectators got a view of the start, parts along the middle and the end of the stage!

The large crowd that turned out was truly well behaved and supportive and for the first time there were no shortages of marshals!!!

And they're off!
The first car on the line for 2006 was the NP Ultra/ Stag/ Josef's Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 driven by Ainsley Lochan and co-driven by Vishal Dhanraj. Ainsley posted a fantastic time of 1 minute 57 seconds on this new stage. Barry McKenzie and Max Jallai followed in the Rallymac Motors Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 and finished only 1 second slower with a time of 1:58. Dave Rampersad and Shiva Mahabir in the Tire Clinic Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 1 crossed the finish in 2 minutes 15 seconds. Jerome Lum Hung who stepped up to the 4WD category in 2006 with the purchase of the ex Roger Williams Mazda 323 GTR clocked 2:05 on his first run. 

The 2005 2WD champions, Rezan Mohammed and Arshad Mondro found their form early continuing where they left off last year in the 1800 Turbo Lancer with a time of 2:13 on his first run. Shelford Robinson however nipped at his door throughout the morning with the Grease Lightning/ Tire Clinic Nissan Sunny and eventually recorded the best 2WD time on the Snake Run 2:12. Rookies, James Harris and Lyndon Mohammed in the ex Vishal Dhanraj Nissan Sunny showed that they meant business posting a best morning run of 2:22  to stay ahead of Simon Rodriguez and Wesley Nandoo Toyota Corolla who posted a best time of 2:28 on the Snake Run.

Jerome Lum Hung in the TCL Mazda 323 had an unfortunate incident when one of his front shocks broke it's mount on the return route causing him to go off and which resulted in him missing a stage. Barry McKenzie seemed to be capable of challenging the ever dominant Ainsley Lochan, but a fuel pump problem on the second stage saw his retirement from the Snake Run.

By the lunch break Ainsley Lochan's NP Ultra/ Stag/ Josef's Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 was in the lead followed by Dave Rampersad's Tire Clinic Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 1.

Seego Super Special
After lunch the Seego Super Special got underway with a drive thru since two chicanes had to be put in place to limit speeds drivers attained on the long straight. By this time Barry McKenzie had his Rallymac Motors car repaired and even though he had no chance of finishing on the podium, he came out to prove that his car and team were ready for all competitors in 2006. He did just that in fine style winning all three (3) Seego Special Stages with a best of 1 min 52sec which bettered the Ainsley Lochan's best run by 4 seconds. Both Drivers had the Spectators roaring with their 2 wheel antics in the Stadium Turn next to the pits.

As luck would have it, all the competitors who started on the morning managed to finish the last special stage of the day.

Prize giving was in the pits right after the last stage and the results are as follows:

GROUP PLACING

4WD

2WD

OVERALL

TEAM WINNERS

Ainsley Lochan / Vishal Dhanraj     Rezan Mohammed / A Mondro

Photos: Page 1 of 5