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Well people, its that time again. Round 2 in the FIA/NACAM Rally Championships
(please don't tell anyone i said the words FIA!)

We left Trinidad at 7:40am this morning and flew to Miami only to make another 2 connections in Mexico and have finally arrived at the Hotel in Oaxaca Mexico at 1:00am Trini time - long day of airports. The Jamaican crew are all accounted for as well, however the challenges have already started:
- Some parts needed for this weekend were on their way to the airport in England and the courier's delivery truck ended up crashing and someone was unfortunately killed. Short version, truck impounded, parts not making it again. Coelho may be donating a few parts with a last minute delivery on Friday.
- Neil Buckley (chief mechanic) missed his connection today and only gets in tomorrow, Phil Marks spent the day on the car today but tomorrow is still an important prep day on the car.

Itinerary:
Thursday - Car Preparation
Friday - Pace notes, scrutineering, and reccee for the Service Crew
Saturday - 155km stages and prize giving
Sunday - Fly home

Updates, pictures, and hopefully video to be updated regularly from here on in....Search NACAM Rally Championship on Facebook as well.

keep it coming Robbie!!

Give em hell guys!!!

You know that the entire genuine, honest and respectable Motor Sport fraternity in T&T, Jamaica and indeed the entire Caribbean is fully behind you all and we will pray for a safe and successful result.

Look at how the hurdles are again jumping out of nowhere and this still will not deter the dogged determination of John and his entire team.

did the car stay in Mexico after the first round?

Good luck guys !!!

hope there's less hiccups than last round

foss wrote:did the car stay in Mexico after the first round?

Good luck guys !!!

Yup it did. John bought that Evo IX specifically for that NACAM series.

His GrpN Evo X will stay in T&T for the local TTRC Championship and the WRC S14 Subaru he will use in Barbados for Rally Barbados in June

^ Nice ... when everyone has to ship their car to different countries to race .. John just have to buy a plane ticket and jump in one of his cars in the country he is in and race .. ...

Anyways, all the best to the Team !!!

robie ...yuh brush yuh teeth this morning ?



good luck again to john and the team

Ignorant Ignis wrote:robie ...yuh brush yuh teeth this morning ?



good luck again to john and the team

Haha boss men gonna start to worry with this one. Security took my toothpaste but I got some proper Mexican Colgate haha. Boys are in good spirits much less stress than last time. Pics to come soon

Just got some updates from TTRC

Neil Buckley got in safely. Master-tuner Phil Marks was putting som final touches on the car today.

Seen here is John in his Evo IX with Phil listening in


Flags flown proudly and the car now has "Trinidad y Tobago" graphic on the side!


Look out for more updates soon

Love the Trinidad Y Tobago graphics!

Looking forward to more pics and positive updates.

Good luck guys

Goodluck I know you will do TnT proud...and to think this time they actually gettin some TLC with the car prior and not just a blind date

Update 2

The car is back to full working order. The fan was changed as well as the head gasket as a precaution after the overheating problems last time out. The anti-lag settings were also changed a bit. Other than that it was mainly a full run through that they weren't able to do in the rush a month back. Again the Rally will touch up to 3000m so accurate car settings to compensate for the altitude will be important.

John and Mike pull out at 7:45am to do 159km of pace notes. Then the ceremonial start downtown tomorrow. The stages are about 30 min away which isn't bad, and Oaxaca is pretty easy to navigate. The hotel is nice, surrounded by mountains - very scenic, and 10min away from downtown. The weather has been very rainy and conditions could be wet for the rally. Its about 15 degrees at night and it warms up to about 28 during the day.

Trivino is due in tonight and the battle on Saturday should be hot, as so far most people are anticipating John's pace. The newspapers had a one page article today launching the rally, and the Oaxaca press showed up tonight hoping to do an interview with John but the team is already sleeping so they will catch up tomorrow. Great to see the local press involvement.

Funny we arrived at the garage today and before we even saw the car there were a few of the local mechanics shouting 'Powell, Powell'....

Will send some more pics tomorrow after scrutineering.

This was the first we saw of the car which was shipped down from Puebla. Phil Marks, and Neil Buckley were already hard at the prep while we were catching some extra sleep


The garage was very tight so proper pics of the car will come tomorrow after scrutineering but the Trini decals are finally on


Michael Fennell (co-driver) and Peter Clarke from Jamaica


John and one of the garage supervisors


So while the preps going down on the Evo, we saw this thing peaking out under the cover.


And this immaculate historic VW Rally car was unveiled. 2000cc and ready to rumble as you see it there.


When in Mexico, there are worms in your Mezcal, but 'es OK Señor'

...sweeett...!

..can't wait for Costa Rica...!

the Evo and beetle looking sweeeeeeettt !!!!

Should put some gopros on d car

good luck john......continue flyin our flag high and proudly......

UPDATE 3

Friday has come to an end, tires have been balanced, car aligned, final preparations are complete. The car passed a very rigorous scrutineering today around 3pm. The FIA scrutineer checked everything down to the nomex underwear. Turbos, diffs, and the gearbox had to be sealed among other things. They took pictures of the certs for the suits, helmets, and shoes.

Scrutineering finished and it was back to the hotel for a quick turn around to the ceremonial start. The start was downtown near one of the oldest cathedrals in Mexico. So the Rally cars all gathered outside the 400 year old church which provided a perfect backdrop. The ceremony started with a live band - Powell and Fennell actually sang in the mariachi band......just kidding but there were many pics with the local festivities. Unfortunately the rain came down really hard and delayed the start by over an hour. The rain let up slightly and then the opening ceremony began with the national anthems of the countries, and the cars driving over the ramp to a very damp crowd. Despite the inclement weather most of the crowd stayed and cheered the 30 odd teams.

We start with a 5am wakeup call, then the first stage starts at 8:30am - 9:30am Trini time. The internet is a bit slow tonight with all the media logged on so pics may be posted a little later. Unfortunately the cell service is not good at the service park so updates will be as an when we can get signal. Rally start!!!

Excellent. Good luck to the team.

Tell John that we expect him to not just beat Trevino, but to put a real good cut arse on him.

Stages are very smooth no room for error as its mountain on one side and cliff on the other so No room for hanging it out.

Rally started they on stage now. Johns wife joined the team last night so we made it onto a corner.

Probably end of stage 2 at 10:30am trini time. We won't know any results until the end of 3 at the fuel break.

Robbie yuh should have spent a lil 400secs. inside the 400 year old Cathedral to ensure a 40sec. margin of victory!

But no problem, we are all fully behind the team and the service crew.

Apparently John did not make it to fuel stop. The fan problem from the first leg is back. They may have stopped on stage 2. Details hard to come by . Will confirm as soon as I can

They stopped at the end of 3. The service crew will have to go in and tow them from there . Heartbreaking

So far we know that they stopped voluntarily at the end of stage 3 but I sure they ran it damn hot.

They will have to miss stage 4 or was there a long enough service break?

Nah only one service allowed for the whole day .... And they have retired for sure being towed back to service