Any body can confirm whether Wagon-r was in the vicinity? Anyway we know that these are the risks that photo-takouters take to get the best shots and are prepared to roll with the punches.

^ LOL I think that stigma washed off Wagon R a while now.

just got off the phone with Wagon R - he wasn't any where around Devi, in fact he only just found out about the accident when I told him just now - and they are in the same hotel so he's on his way to go look for Devi now.

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3NE•2NR

i think by the time he hit me..he had scrubbed off a lot of speed...i consider myself very lucky...Gen barely managed to get out of the way..things could of been worse ...but we orn for tom..

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www.devinath.com

So when he scrubbed off most of the speed, you used you to scrub off the rest?

Thank God that you are both Ok, so we can continue to get some good shots, but we could settle for some side shots instead of the head-on ones.

X2!

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The Speed Lifestyle magazine in the Islands, ZORCE

lone trini still in the rally is Vishal Danraj in the ex-James Betts Opel Corsa.
Vishal just passed on the Stewart's Hill Stage main spectator point where he stalled for a few seconds but quickly got the car going again.

Be sure to listen in on www.rallyfm.net

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3NE•2NR

Glad Devi is ok. Go Vishal go. Fly the red white and black

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After Gravel Who Needs Tarmac

First our cars, then our photographers! Trini fans watch yuhself, this rally taking out anything trini hahaha.

Mash it up vishal!!!

seems to be a rough one for the local guys

After SS17
1. Bird
2. Bourne +00.00.05.95
3.Panton +00.00.29.49
4. Perez +00.00.30.86

Gill retired around lunch

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3NE•2NR

go vishal!

34 retirements so far - that is some high attrition!
that is 1/3 of all the competitors

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3NE•2NR

Maybe he was trying to wish you a Happy Birthday....

glad you ok.

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“Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose.â€

Provisional results are in. We have to wait until prize giving tonight to get the final results

top ten for Rally Barbados 2012 are

1 1 Paul Bird / Kirsty Riddick
2 19 Paul Bourne / Megan Bryant(F)
3 4 Jeffrey Panton / Michael Fennell.Jnr
4 6 Steve Perez / Paul Spooner
5 8 Neil Armstrong / Barry Ward
6 7 Roger Duckworth / Aled Davies
7 18 Rob Swann / Darren Garrod
8 20 Josh Read / Mark Jordan
9 29 Roger Mayers / Barry Mayers
10 14 Logan Watson / Rhett Watson

There were only 51 finishers out of the 102 starters

unfortunately all three Trinis competing in the event ended in DNFs.

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3NE•2NR

King of the Hill from a week ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Rally Barbados clips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=

Folks, after 5 days in Barbados with lots of sights, sounds, and sips, here's the official and unofficial wrap up to the Region's largest motorsport event, and eh hem.....largest motorsport lime.

The lead up - Many of the spectators arrive a few days before the big Rally just to get some beach time and patronize the local bar scene. None of this is organized by the Barbados Rally Club, but with a small island surrounded by spectacular beaches, restaurants and easy going night life, warming up to the weekend from the Wednesday night is pretty easy to do. Probably made a lot easier this year with the public holiday in Trinidad last week Thursday.
Trini Support Crew - Usually found in Mojo's Bar (The Bajan one) on the south coast road on the Thursday night till shortly after midnight then many of us can be found wondering around the GAP until we find our beds in the wee hours of Friday morning.
Friday is definitely beach day as you try to find some shade to recover from the previous night's activities. Its also the last chance you get to figure out which spot you are going to watch the Rally at. MY ADVICE - link up with people who have already gone in previous years or some Bajans as some of the locations don't exactly have street signs and its just easier to follow people on Saturday morning rather than read google maps.

Actual Rally - For someone who has only ever attended a Trini Rally, here is what to expect:
- CROWD! - Rally Barbados is like Trini Carnival, but the Bajan's love Rally like we love Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Every man, woman, child, and stray dog knows what is going on. Its typical to find 1000 people on a random S-bend, and this will just be 1 area of 1 stage (3 different stages run simultaneously)
- Cars and more cars - 100 cars were entered in this event, over 30 International, and i think 6 regional teams entered. Cars fly past every 30-seconds (no dust to deal with) and its typical to see cars overtaking as the running order gets mixed up throughout the day. Attrition rate is super high though and less than 60% make it to the end of Day 1, and less than 50% even come close to finishing.
- HOT! - In Barbados the sun is apparently closer to the earth, and sun block, umbrellas, tents, tarps, and just about anything that you can find to take shelter is a good idea. ICE is sold in 25lb bags and you are going to want to buy more than you think you will need. Buy all the drinks and eats on the morning of or the night before, as its typical for every gas station and small grocery to run out of ice, sodas, and other eats and drinks by 8am on Saturday morning.
- Move Early - People are on the stage at 6:30am for a 9:45am start - the really good spots will have people camping out from the night before.

THE CARS
- There is something like 10 classes of cars - check it out officially at the http://www.rallybarbados.bb website. Everything from 10 WRC spec Focus, Subbies, and Suzuki's to the long list of BMW's to the historic cars of the Escorts, Starlets, Alfa Romeros, you name it. And the odd Lotus Elise in the middle of the order.
- By comparison WRC Mexico this year only had 12 WRC championship cars entered out of a full field of approx. 30 entrants.
- The vast majority of the 2WD cars are all naturally aspirated and the top guys like Neil Armstrong, Josh Reid, the Watson and Mayers brothers, James Betts, Ian Warren, Neil Corbin, the list goes on, all sound like some sort of Formula 1 Rally car revving to well over 9000rpm with 6-spd sequential dog boxes.
- The lineup is spectacular for just about any Rally in the world and some of the 2WD monsters trade times with most of the WRC field.

The Competition
- Judging by the amount of classes, as well as the shear size of the entry list you would be correct in assuming that the competition is fierce. What makes this Rally very interesting to follow is that you can find a 'battle' right through the lineup and cars from the lead to the back of the pack are often within 100th of a second off of one another.
- The lead change hands a few times well and Gill was actually leading on Sunday morning if not for his latest bout of bad luck with a blown engine.
- Bajans are a committed bunch, despite having the 'local knowledge' advantage and they adapt well to changing surface conditions and the weather - they drive hard and fight for every inch of usable road. Don't go with even the slightest thought of winning anything on your first try. Its taken Paul Bird 6 attempts to finally win it in the best machinery that money can buy and a very successful Rally resume to back it up.

The Stages
- Short, fast, slippery, and if you think Trinidad's culverts are dangerous, the Bajan cut rock (limestone edged rock that will cut your car like a jagged knife)
- If it rains picture adding a squeezy and oil mixture to the surface, switch your "3rd gear corners" to "easy in 1st" haha, and expect your braking to add speed rather than reduce it in some instances.

OVERALL
- Great Lime! - bring Trini rum if that is what you drink as you won't find that 'shite' in Barbados no matter how hard you look - however an Old Gold and soda usually does the trick.
- Great Cars - For just a short flight a few dollars on a hotel and rental car you can experience something close to a World event in terms of the range of cars.
- Fantastic Vibe - The whole country knows about it literally, and you could easily compare it to Carnival in Trinidad based on the amount of people who attend and the attention it gets.

THE TRINI TEAMS
John Powell / Nicholas Telfer - WRC Subaru S14 - Shell Helix / Intercontinental Shipping - John finished 3rd in the qualifying King of the Hill the week before and as a result was 3rd off the line. We were on the 1st stage of the day (Pickering) and John came through slightly faster than Skeete but admittedly off the pace of Paul Bird who was literally trying to win it on the first stage. I believe John was 5th on Stage 1 but 3 sec separated 1st and 5th to give you an idea of the pace from the start. John's Mexican luck continued however and managed to hit something slightly harder than the S14 on the right side which busted the tire, and 'scattered' the shock absorber. The impact was so hard that it cracked the windscreen in the process. Due to the fact that John's car is one of 7 in the world, and the spares for the car are not exactly available in your local auto parts place, he reluctantly retired at the end of stage 2 ending any hope of the 3-peat of regional rallying. Up next for John is the 3rd round of the NACAM Rally Championship in Costa Rica on July 7.

Stuart Johnson / Colin Hoad - Group N Subaru N12
- 'Soby' started conservative as he typically does in this Rally. With a high attrition rate you can easily count on a solid number of people in your class not finishing, however his strategy encountered a momentary lapse in concentration when he passed too close to the cut rock which opened up his left side fender like an industrial can opener. He compared it to a dinosaur clawing away the front fender. This put him out the Rally and that was 2 down for the Trinis by lunch time on Saturday.

Vishal Dhanraj / Scott Leonard - 2WD S9 Opel Corsa
- Vishal has been competing at Rally Barbados for quite some time now and is probably just as experienced as John on these stages. However Vishal who rented the car from James Betts had his fair share of challenges. Busted Gearbox mounts and a few other fuel issues which saw him stall the car a couple times made the Rally tough but otherwise enjoyable. Vish was in good spirits as well as the rest of the contingent but there was more clapping than receiving any trophies at the prize giving this year.

ON FIA
I will say this little piece as the entire local fraternity is always anxious to know what this really means for motorsport. The event is sanctioned by the local ASN - the BMF, however it is not an FIA event. The Barbados Rally Club hosts and manages every aspect of the event, with absolutely no interference or control by the ASN. The President of the ASN is a spectator and an observer and has absolutely no authority on the event. He will give his advice and suggestions as would be expected but interesting to know he was actually a competitor until a lamp post forced him into spectator mode.
Members of the FIA were there as observers ONLY and were invited not required to be there, and never once 'forced' themselves on the event. All was left to the BRC - the Good, the Bad, and the Cut Rock.
You must be a license holder to compete as Barbados is a 'sanctioned' territory, but this is expected.
But please note that the Rally follows the rules of the BRC, and only uses the FIA as a guideline for safety, and classes of cars which are then adapted for Club use etc etc.

RALLY BARBADOS VERDICT - Find yuh arse there for 2013!

Check out all the Tuner photographers for all the pics - i won't try to post mine to compete with theirs - Lyden, Gerry, Captain Dumps, Devi, and crew. Check out all the stuff on facebook as well as search for "Race1 Barbados" on youtube etc for some video action.

^^^ Excellent... thank you!

here is a link to some of the videos that I took and uploaded to Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UU ... ature=plcp

...i have many more to upload

Robert, I must commend you on your writing style, informative, witty, easy to read, I visualised what went on when I read your report.
Keep it up.

Good stuff!!


Rally BIM one day ill experience it!!

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http://www.trinituner.com/v3/forums/viewtopic.php?uid=16244&f=32&t=507064&start=0


^^free

Professor thanks a lot. I will be heading off to Costa Rica with John on July 7 for Round 3 of NACAM, then if all goes well
- Peru - Sept Aug 30-1
- Panama - Oct 12-13
- Colombia - Nov 11-12
- Jamaica - Dec 1-2

So hopefully the local tuners will be able to keep up with what goes on outside of Trinidad with Rallying.

Some more interesting information on Regional Rallying:
The Caribbean Championship conversation is happening again to be done through JMMC, BRC, and TTRC to be kept as a Caribbean Event rather than a NACAM or FIA event per say. We are trying desperately to kick off some sort of 1st version of it in 2013 with possibly the Grp N and WRC cars as the official classes. The Championship would be an Event within an Event essentially with the same focus placed on the individual Rally TRI, BAR, and JAM, etc.

Although we would all love to say that Trinidad will be home to a leg of the NACAM Rally Championship, it is a bit unlikely due to the logistics and regulations. For example:
- Classes - The NACAM event is run under the FIA rules and the classes don't allow the Caribbean WRC cars. Many of you who follow rallying will know that the 1600cc Turbo RS Rally Cars (Ford Fiesta, Citroen C3, Mini, VW Polo) have replaced the older 2000cc Turbo Rally Cars (Ford Focus, Subaru S14, Citroen C4). The WRC cars in the Caribbean are very much still the marketable car of choice for both the organizers and the drivers. In addition none of our 2WD classes conform to the FIA rules for a full FIA event. Which basically translates to the only cars that the local and regional drivers will be able to enter are the purest of Group N, for which i can tell you after seeing the scrutineers at work - none of our local cars are up to scratch.
- Stages - One of the most difficult rules to overcome is the rule that you cannot pass through a stage in 1 direction more than twice for the Rally. This will be difficult as Trinidad does not have the mileage of stages that Mexico, and the other Central American stages have. We could pull it off with Bronte, Cedar, Reform, then reverse it but the mileage would be very short by comparison (Oaxaca Rally 160km - Trinidad - 116km).
- Late Rule - In addition once a stage runs late by more than 10 minutes, it has to be cancelled under FIA rules. No event in the Caribbean has yet to achieve this level of efficiency over the whole Rally. We are getting there but not yet.

The future would probably be the Caribbean Championship first for a few years with recognition from NACAM, then maybe get some of the NACAM drivers to ship their car to Rally Trinidad as it is before the start of the NACAM Championship which is in April. This would be looked at as a warm up Rally for them. But by then Rally Trinidad will be a leg of the Trinidad National Championship as well as a leg of the Caribbean Championship. It would be difficult to try to make it a leg of the NACAM Championship in the same event especially seeing that John would campaign the WRC car for the Caribbean, and a Grp N for the NACAM Championship - not possible to drive 2 cars in the same event. And you also have the major conflict of sponsors for 3 different championship events in one event.

So although its not totally impossible to have a NACAM leg in Trinidad, at the moment it is a tough to conceptualize with our current class of cars, and the stage layout, and the finances available to host it. The organizers of the NACAM Championship don't sponsor everything and expect the host nations to come up with their share of the sponsorship as well.

nice write up Wobby.....amazed you could remember so much after so much dr....er....driving and pace noting..

Of course for some reading this, allow me some clarification on any possibility of a NACAM leg in Trinidad. This cannot happen unless there is a major change in local motorsport. TTRC is still not affiliated to TTASA for many reasons previously stated (not getting into that now), and TTASA admittedly lacks the Rally management to do it on their own. Any NACAM championship leg will have to be FIA sanctioned and will need the blessing of the local ASN.

So like drag racing, circuit racing, and karting, hopefully Rallying can move also forward if TTASA can find it within themselves to facilitate the change that is required. I am not getting into an online debate here, so please let's not start one.

Mark Hamilton's crash
this is when Devi and Gen got knocked down. Foss was quick to run down and check on Devi

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3NE•2NR

oh goar foss, put down the beer self nah

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if duane only know foss' true intentions.................... "southside"

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these are the pics Devi took just before he was hit



























BADANG!

glad you ok man

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3NE•2NR

devi wicked to stay dey so long.. by d 4th pic i was packin up and gone. lol thanks 4 the great shots man!

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Ministry of health advises SR20S' That RUNNING down my HONDA can be dangerous to HEALTH. .

LOL @ last pic

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http://www.trinituner.com/v3/forums/viewtopic.php?uid=16244&f=32&t=507064&start=0


^^free

Now that's a professional! Even the last pic in focus and level.

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The Speed Lifestyle magazine in the Islands, ZORCE