Rally Barbados 2008 - Saturday Stages Part 2
31st May 2008
Photography by C. Bhagirath, D. Nath, G. Singh, K Pinhiero, D. Boodasingh, N. Sooknarine, G. Wilson, R. Peyrau, R. Singh, S. St. John, and W Lee
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Article by Robin Bradford - robin@bradfax.com
Continued from Part 1
Apart from Meeke, the Europeans were taking time to get into their stride, Bird completely new to what is known as a tricky event, while Perez, with co-driver Howard Davies in the Kick Energy Drink Ford Focus WRC03, rarely pushes early in island events. But there was worse trouble for Kevin Procter and Dave Bellerby (Procters Coaches Subaru Impreza WRC S7) - running fourth coming into stage 5, Procter miscalculated the right-handed Vaucluse Corner and hit a small wall hard, dislodging the left rear wheel. A stop-start finish to the stage to avoid delaying other competitors cost two minutes compared to their earlier runs, while the necessary repairs resulted in them being OTL after the lunch break, and therefore no longer in the running for overall position.
With the event running late, Saturday morning's final stage was cancelled and, come the afternoon, everyone had settled down. Meeke was fastest on four stages (three through Sailor Gully and the final downhill Canefield) and, while Gregg claimed the other two Canefields, the Irishman carried a 53-second advantage into the overnight halt.
Gregg was second, while Bird was proving to be a fast learner - second twice to Gregg on Canefield, he was now third overall, four seconds behind Gregg, but less than one in front of the 10-time winner of the island's premier event, Roger Skeete. With Robert Simmons co-driving the Michelin/FB Batteries Ford Escort WRC, Skeete was fighting back after losing time on stage 1, in the top five on all but two stages since.
Perez and Gill were next, with Trevor Manning/Derek Edwards (Shell V-Power/Simpson Motors/Garbage Master Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII) and Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (Mobil 1/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Celica GT4) seventh and eighth. Despite much work, the Evo was still lacking pace - its top speed at the end of the Vaucluse Straight was 175kmh, according to GPS vehicle tracking, compared with 187kmh for Bourne, Meeke and Hill.
The top 10 was completed by the Group N leaders, following a close battle all day; in the Monster Energy/Champions/Sol/Axis Caribbean Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII, Champion had been the faster on stage 1, after local crew Geoff Noel and Kreigg Yearwood (Globe Finance/Ezone/ DeWalt/Automotive Art/Sunbeach Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) had a small excursion. These two swapped faster times back and forth, rarely letting other Group N runners into their private battle, and Noel led at lunch by 17secs; a full house of fastest times in the afternoon, however, gave Champion a 10secs advantage overnight.
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