Rally Barbados 2012 – Scrutineering

Posted By: Nicholas Dumplin Bhajan02/06/12No Comments;
Tags:Rally Barbados 2012Photographers: Nicholas Dumplin Bhajan
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Sol Rally Barbados continues to be a staple on many peoples annual “must go to” event list. With over 100 competitors from some 15 nations this year, the event truly is an “International Rally”.

This year features teams from as far as South Africa to as close as Trinidad & Tobago. On Saturday the scrutineering event took place and hundreds of curious fans and media personnel got a chance to see the cars before the King of the Hill tarmac event on Sunday 3rd June 2012 . This year features a large contingent of the always entertaining Toyota Starlets and Ford Escorts, however the big news for this year’s event is the whopping entry list of no less than 11 world rally cars!

Featured in this WRC class is John “Penti” Powell flying the T&T flag in his Subaru S14 WRC. Penti placed 1st at Rally Jamaica in December 2011 and again at Rally Trinidad 2012. A 1st place at Rally Barbados has so far eluded him over the years and remains the only top podium spot he has yet to take home on the Caribbean’s “big three” rally circuit of Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica. RB 2012 is arguably the best chance for John & his co-driver Nick Telfer to take home the top spot in barbados completing the trifecta.

Fellow Trinidadian Stuart Johnson returns for his second consecutive outing at Rally Barbados in a very competitive production 4 class featuring local aces and teams from Ireland & the UK. Also representing the Red, White & Black is Vishal Dhanraj who just missed out on a top 3 finish in his class last year. This year he has opted to rent an Opel Corsa and will battle it out in the Super Modified 9 class.