Rally Trinidad 2008 - Sunday Stages
30th March 2008
Photography by Candace Bhagirath, Gerrard Wilson, Devi Nath, Duane Boodasingh, Kendrick Sooknarine and Wayne Lee
Article by Robert Cadiz - TTRC Treasurer

Sunday morning started with 3 stages going Up the hill in Couva’s ‘Jack and Jill’. Powell and Bourne clocked the exact same times for all 3 runs which was testament to how close this battle was becoming. T&T’s Darrel Ramesar’s EVO 3 suffered a busted gearbox putting him out of contention for top honours in the 2WD Group 2-4, and also a major loss to the local boys for the overall 2WD. With Ramesar out, Rezan Mohammed continued to fly the Red, White and Black for the overall 2WD position. Mohammed answered the call beautifully posting very fast times in the morning stages to hold off a stiff challenge from Bajan driver Ian Warren in the Peugeot 206. As it seemed that there was no catching Gill, Mohammed and Warren were having their own battle holding on to 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Sunday afternoon headed over to the dreaded ‘Snake Run’ with 3 of those stages threatened by the onset of some heavy rain. As the weather held up nicely it seemed as though T&T’s hopes weren’t following suit. Bourne and Gill didn’t make a single mistake much to the disappointment of Powell and Mohammed who drove spectacularly in a last ditch attempt to vie for top 4WD and 2WD position. Lochan, the first to be ‘bitten’ by the Snake, had no choice to suffer his slowest times with engine trouble. Although this provided a nice opportunity for Vishal Dhanraj in his Scotia Bank Esso Subaru, Lochan had put a comfortable lead in the 4WD Group 3-A and eventually took top honours at the end. Lochan’s car trouble had a major impact on his overall standings however, allowing the Bajan trio of Sean Gill, James Betts, Harold Morley and SVG’s Steve Ollivierre to go forward.

The final stages of Rally Trinidad 2008 headed across the road to repeat Saturday night’s Indian Trail to Zig Zag. This stage featured a huge jump into the round-about area, which excited the throng of spectators. Going into the second to last stage, a mishap on the approach to the jump forced Powell into an evasive manoeuvre, causing him to roll his Subaru. This meant a definite end to the title chase and Bourne finally breathed a sigh of relief as his fight for overall winner of RT08 was finally over. Gill who had raced flawlessly over the weekend powered his Suzuki Swift to an impressive win in the overall 2WD class and managed to take 4th overall beating many 4WD cars in the process. Mohammed put up a brave effort to earn 1st in the 2WD Group 2-4 class and 2nd overall 2WD for his Vigourade team. This is Rezan ‘Consistent’ Mohammed/Arshad Mondro’s 4th local consecutive win of Rally Trinidad, a magnificent feat for this team !!! All in all, the local drivers did well to compete against the noticeably better prepared cars from Barbados, Jamaica, and SVG, and the local boys will take many lessons and a great experience away from this event.

This FIA sanctioned event could not have been possible without the generous sponsorship of Stag and NP Ultra. Thanks to Ainsley Lochan, Junior Sammy’s efforts in the stage preparation resulted in the best conditions for Rallying that Trinidad and Tobago have ever seen, The Club is also indebted to all its officials, marshals and volunteers who helped to make this event historic. Chalk one up for T&T motorsport!!