Greetings from Jamrock folks. The teams of John Powell/ Nicholas Telfer and Ainsley Lochan/Robert Cadiz flew up to Jamaica on Tuesday this week to take part in Rally Jamaica 2011. So far the week has been fantastic, great weather and the pace-noting has been the order of the day as the Rally consists of 150km of very very loose gravel stages.

Rally Headquarters and home base is the Knutsford Court which is a great Hotel in downtown Kingston. The Rally has changed a bit this year with no stages in the mines as in previous years and all the stages are located approximately 45min drive from the hotel.

The stages:
- New Works / Freshhh - 5.5km
- Bybrook / Tru-Juice - 9.2km
- Bybrook / Tru-Juice 2 - 6.3km
- Wakefield (Water Splash) - 5.8km
- Bernard Lodge - 16km

Friday Night: Opening Ceremony in New Kingston (no stage)
The entire Rally will be run in the Bog Walk area which is a massive acreage Orange Tree Estate.
Saturday Stages:
New Works - 3fwd
Bybrook - 3fwd
Lunch
New Works - 3rev
Bybrook - 3rev

These stages are fast and a combination of very loose gravel and grass. The gravel is manageable and a little rougher surface than what we expect from Bronte and Cedar, however the Grass is going to be very slippery up to mid-morning with the dew. If you think Trinidad is bad with dust, the dust up here is fine like concrete dust, almost limestone like, and each passing vehicle will leave a huge cloud. It is bad up here. Any vehicle catching another is going to literally have to hit them to pass, that is if you can even see it.



After today's recce after a few days of cars passing through the trees lining the stages are white, almost like a winter scene. We will see how this goes with the 1-min interval.
New Works has a lot more grass, and Bybrook is the more technical one for sure, jumps and more jumps.

Sunday stages consist of a shortened Bybrook and a lovely stage called Wakefield - home of the famous watersplash. Thankfully the stages are very close together and the transits are very manageable. Sunday consists of:
Bybrook 2 - 2fwd
Wakefield - 2fwd
lunch
Wakefield - 2rev
Bybrook - 2rev

and then comes the mammoth Bernard Lodge. This is a 16km flat out sprint through the largest cane field i have ever seen in my life. Some times the road is wide and has the distance of a small runway. Given that this is the penultimate stage of the Rally, it will be a serious mind game. If you are still in the running, this stage is serious make or break. Engines and brakes are going to be seriously tested on this 16km. If cars are white smoking at the Super Special in New Kingston on Sunday evening it will be because they left a few pistons in Bernard Lodge.

The lineup consists of 12 4WD and the rest 2WD.
1. Gary Gregg - Ford Focus WRC
2. Sean Gill - Suzuki SX4 WRC
3. John Powell - Subaru S14 WRC
4. Leslie Madden - Subaru 2004 WRC (homebuilt)

Mixed up in there is Harold Morley in his Subaru, and Jeffery Panton (RT11 Winner) in Penti's Evo X. Lochan and myself are in a 1600cc Mivec Colt and are part of the JA2 class. It is definitely the most competitive class in 2WD, and we will be going up against 4 starlets, a Corolla, and Mitsubishi Lancer GT. in this class are Mathew Gore, and Kyle Gregg who will be the ones to catch. We are #26, and very happy to let the big boys go through while Lochan gets accustomed to no Rear Diff.

The rented Mitsubishi 2WD




Anyways the pace notes are almost done, the car is almost prepped. Huge Huge thanks to Bobby Marshall for prepping his second car for us to use. Ricky Bobby has been crucial to us getting ready for this weekend. The Jamaican hospitality has been fantastic with small events every night leading up to the event, and the stages are all in good shape, making for a very enjoyable experience.

Will keep you guys posted as best as i can.

taking a run at Track & Records Sport Bar in Kingston


Lochan at the wheel near the garage

Posting something offensive, then you see that tr1ad is online so you erase what you post #TriniTunerProblems

Just spoke to Robbie, he made a little error, John is in 1st by 6sec heading into the final stage of the rally

bwoy it had to happen sometime but i glad is penti tek it and not sean lol. Congrats guys. rally did wicked, super competitive all the way down the field, i cant remember the last time i saw a rally where ppl were still flat out on day 2

pics can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/JaTuner


oh, was nice meeting robbie and ainsley....shoulda never tell dem mi screen name though