Rally Barbados 2008 - Sunday Stages
1st June 2008
Photography by C. Bhagirath, D. Nath, G. Singh, K. Pinheiro, D. Boodasingh, N. Sooknarine, G. Wilson, R. Peyrau, and R. Singh
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Article by Robin Bradford - robin@bradfax.com
Continued from Part 2
More drama would unfold on Sunday: as Meeke left the startline of the first stage, Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre Kendal, a propshaft snapped and he lost 14secs to Gregg. Running in the Sunday Cup, Bourne was fastest from Bird, Gregg, Manning, Hill and Perez. With no spare propshaft, a makeshift repair was effected, but Meeke would have only two-wheel-drive for the rest of the day. Meeke's 53-second cushion - now cut to 39secs - did not look so secure but, following some delays while oil on the stage was cleared, the stage was cancelled . . . so Meeke could breathe again!
Bourne was fastest on all of Sunday's stages - comfortably the Sunday Cup winner - and was clocked by GPS at 201kmh on the Kendal Straight, joint fastest with Meeke. Bird was now flying, second to Bourne on all but the final stage; despite snatching second place from Gregg after stage 14 at Stewart's Hill, however, and cutting the gap to Meeke from 44secs to 17secs, the win would not be his.
Gregg held on for third, ahead of Perez - fourth for the third year in a row - as the local four-wheel-drive challenge had ended.
Skeete's centre diff gave out, while Manning had been too far behind to benefit, so finished sixth. Fifth, and the highest-placed local driver, was SuperModified 10 winner Gill, with Hill seventh and Modified 8-A winner. In Group N, although Noel was faster than Champion on six of the nine stages that ran, with tenths being traded back and forth, the win went to Champion, eighth overall.
The top 10 was completed by SM11 winners Jonathan Still and Heath Hazell (Hitachi Power Tools/Ocean Spray/Philips Lighting/Crane & Equipments/Castrol Oils BMW M3). From early, they had battled with Nick Gill and Sue Rogers (Castrol Syntec/Lysol/Listerine/Vita Malt/ Hennessy/McEnearney Quality Inc Mazda 3), Still losing his early lead late afternoon Saturday, with no brakes for the last three stages. He was fastest on all but one of Sunday's, however, beating Gill by 14secs. In a moving moment at the Prize-giving, Still dedicated the win to close friend and rival Martin Stockdale: the only driver to have contested all eight Rally Carnivals, Stockdale had suffered a serious hand injury when his BMW M3 GTR dropped of its jacks during service and retired. Still and Hazell presented Stockdale and co- driver Mark Swallow with their trophies.
The husband and wife crew of Adrian and Jackie Linton (Ravensden/ Crane and Equipment/Garbage Gobbler/Morris Straker Construction/ Subzero Vauxhall Astra GSi) won M7, while M6 winners were Karl Waterman and Sean Corbin (4W's/Aqua Pur/Flyin' Fish/Crane & Equipments Toyota Starlet), who inherited the lead from 4W's team- mates Ian Warren and Matthew Staffner (Peugeot 206) when their gearbox expired.
James Betts/Dean Serrao (SM9 Makita/All Terrain Plus/Star Products/ Champion Auto Wrecker/Kendal Sporting/Quik Start Auto Opel Corsa) and Neil Barnard/Barry Hill (Production 2 Simpson Motors/Automotive Art/ Shell V-Power/Yokohama Suzuki Ignis Sport) were the only other local crews to claim a Group victory, as the remaining four went to visitors from Europe: England's Andrew Costin-Hurley won Group B in the Earl's Performance/ARP/Posh Paintworks Ford Puma for the second year in a row, new co-driver Mike Lund claiming his first trophy in 11 years of rallying; fellow countryman Andy Carter, with Joanne Briggs as co-driver, won M5 in the Ebor Heating Services/John Hardman Engineering Vauxhall Nova after Scot Kenny Hall, co-driven by Fenny Wesselink from Holland, suffered a bent rear axle on the Simpson Motors/Car Parts4U/Halltune Garage Opel Corsa; Peter Gallagher from Ireland and local co-driver Dario Hoyte won P3 in the Dublin Crystal Peugeot 306 S16, while England's Steve Wood, also paired with a local co-driver, Leslie Evanson, won the historic class in his immaculate Austin Mini Cooper S.
Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill were elements of the eighth Barbados Rally Carnival. The title sponsor was Sol and associate sponsors and marketing partners were McEnearney Quality, Simpson Motors, Automotive Art, Banks Holdings, DaCosta Mannings Auto Centre, Digicel, Preconco, Nassco, Consolidated Finance, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Crane & Equipments, Little Switzerland, Armag, the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association and the Barbados Tourism Authority.
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