John Powell leads the 3-car Trinidad and Tobago Team to Rally Barbados this coming weekend - June 9-10. Also accompanying John, is Group N driver Stuart Johnson in his Subaru. Stuart will be using long time Bajan friend Colin Hoad as his co-driver as he hopes to equate the local knowledge barrier. Vishal Dhanraj is no stranger to Barbados, and will be campaigning his usual Toyota Starlet.
All eyes will surely be focused on Penti however. Powell is hot off wins in Jamaica (2011) and Trinidad (2012), and is making all attempts to come away with the Triple Crown or Grand Slam of Regional Rallying. Should he win this weekend, he will be the first ever regional or otherwise competitor to hold all 3 titles at the same time. However with names like Bird, Skeete, Gill, Panton, Bourne, Perez, and Duckworth, all looking at the prize, this weekend's Rallying could be described as the region's stiffest competition ever. To give you an idea, last weekend's King of the Hill final results were as follows
(King of the Hill was started 5 years ago as an event and a shakedown but also as a seeding mechanism for Rally Barbados - it is run the weekend before Rally Barbados):
1. Bird WRC07 Focus - 1:49.18
2. Skeete WRC Subaru S12 - 1:50.26
3. Powell WRC Subaru S14 - 1:50.42
4. Panton WRC06 Focus - 1:51.24
5. Gill WRC SX4 - 1:51.50
6. Perez WRC07 Focus - 1:52.29
7. Duckworth WRC Subaru Impreza - 1:53.38
8. Armstrong SM10 Starlet - 1:53.53
9. Serrao WRC Subaru S9 - 1:55.83
10. Clarke SM10 Citroen C2 1600 - 1:55.86
......
12. Warren SM10 Swift - 1:56.79
......
23. Betts SM11 Clio - 2:01.62
......
37. Stuart Johnson Grp N Subaru N12 - 2:05.31
Check
http://www.rallyscoring.com/results/201 ... erall0.htm for the complete times.
The fastest of 3 times runs was taken as the final time, and as you can see 2 seconds separates the top 5 teams! Powell won the first run through and he is feeling very confident that he has the machinery to win. He said that the car was dialed in perfectly and its going to come down to pure driving this weekend. He said the pace was very hot, and that he will have to drive a perfect Rally just to be able to give himself a chance at the win. But with him is his long time co-driver Nicholas Telfer who will surely keep him in check. John is happy to be starting 3rd in the seeding order, and although he felt his pace was fast enough to win King of the Hill, he's relieved not to be first off the line on Saturday. When asked who his biggest competition was, Penti says that
Bird is certainly going to be up there, but with Skeete, Gill, Panton, and Bourne all with capable machinery and many years of experience and victories under their belt, its certainly anybody's guess. It's going to come down to who has the commitment and the nerves to go out strong and keep it together all weekend long. John has finished as high as 2nd at Rally Barbados (Toyota Corolla WRC) and it is the only regional title that eludes him.
Stuart had some handling problems that he managed to sort out by the end of the day, and was able to better his times from last year by at least 15 seconds. Stuart leaves the comfort of gravel and will have the notorious Monster 2WD cars in Barbados to deal with. Neil Armstrong is already beating a number of the WRC cars in his Starlet, aptly named the 'WRC killer'.
Vishal Dhanraj has typically not attended King of the Hill, and is more than comfortable with the Bajan roads after many years of competition. He will be dong his best just to keep pace with the ridiculously competitive 2WD cars.
UK Driver Paul Bird who has regularly finished in the top 3 in Barbados
Neil Armstrong's beast Starlet
For more information keep checking this post, as well as FACEBOOK (Rally Barbados). The trinituner crew will be there i'm sure to keep everyone in the loop. I think trinituner is led by Captain 'Dumplin' this year....haha
...so i'm sticking to Robin Bradfords advice last night, the winner of this rally will be who is awake come first stage sat morn!
