[1]Champion Driver title chase still wide open
Following an 11-week break since Sol Rally Barbados, the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Driver’s and Class Championship will shortly move into its final phase for 2022, with three of eight rounds remaining. The Autumn Double-Header Sprint on Sunday, August 21, represents rounds six and seven, with the final to come in October.
The Sprint is planned to run on the familiar Sailor Gully stage in St Peter in two different formats, following Scrutineering (9.00am) and a Briefing Meeting (10.30am) in the Service Park, the location of which is yet to be confirmed. The first event, slated for an 11.15am start, will run northbound from the Sailor Gully hairpin to French Village, after which there will be a brief break to allow for lunch and for the stage crews to prepare for the reverse running. The Club is aiming to run the second event in the afternoon over a longer course from Mt Brevitor through French Village to Sailor Gully, finishing where the morning event had started. There will be four runs in each direction.
Entries opened on Monday (August 8) at Motorsport Services in Haggatt Hall and will close on Wednesday, August 17 at 4.00pm, with late entries accepted until 2.00pm the following day. The event will also form the second day of a double-header weekend for competitors in the R5 Rally Championship presented by First Citizens for whom it will be scored as a rally on cumulative times, rather than as two sprints.
Edward Corbin leads the Champion Driver title chase after the first five rounds in his Modified 1 Daihatsu Charmant, leading nearly 60 drivers who have now scored in the 2022 Championship. The 2019 Champion Driver has dropped only two points from the potential maximum so far of 85, giving him an advantage of three over Clubman 2 leader Ryan Wood in his BimmaCup. A further five points back is Jermin Pope (Honda Civic), who beat Corbin to the M1 class win in First Citizens King of the Hill (May 29) but has finished second to the former Champion in the other four rounds.
Corbin also leads the 2wd standings, which are based on overall finishing positions, so the totals differ from the class totals used for the Champion Driver standings: he has 55 points, two ahead of Logan Watson, who leads Modified 3 in his BMW M3, with Adrian Linton (SuperModified 2 Vauxhall Astra VXR) another four points adrift in third place. Having scored 78 points, Dane Skeete (WRC Subaru Impreza WRC S12) leads 4wd from Stuart Maloney (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) on 59, in turn just one ahead of Britain’s Rob Swann, who has scored in both his R5 Ford Fiesta Rally2 and Impreza WRC S12B.
The final round will be the Winter Rally on October 16. With the now-traditional enhanced scoring system applied to the season finale - 28 points for a win, 23 for second place, 20 for third and so on down to 10 for 10th place, the outcome of the championship remains wide open.
BRC Driver’s Championship
Overall positions after round 5:
1st Edward Corbin (M1 Valvoline/Hilti/Cargo BGI Daihatsu Charmant), 83 points
2nd Robert Ryan Wood (C2 Carter’s Pitstop/C&A Autobody Repair/Guava Tech/Hilti/West Lake/Medical Massage Specialist BimmaCup), 80pts
3rd Jermin Pope (M1 Glassesco/PEG Farms/Good Time Snacks/NKM Clothing/Bio Beauty Day Spa/Automotive Art/Industries Job/C & A Auto Body Repair Honda Civic), 75pts
4th Mark Thompson (M4 Glassesco/Automotive Art/NKM Clothing/Bio Beauty Day Spa Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 73pts
5th Darren Lashley (SM1 Hi-Speed Performance Parts/HEL Performance/Lashley’s Auto Garage/Starboy Performance/Shalom Management Services/High Maintenance Detailing Toyota Starlet), 72pts
6th Stuart Garcia (C3 Kirba Inc/Smith’s Engineering Works/Four & Twenty Bakery/GuavaTech BimmaCup Too), 71pts
7th Adrian Linton (SM2 Ravensden/JAD Performance/Helping Hands Foundation Vauxhall Astra VXR), 66pts
equal 8th Sean Corbin (C2 Kikks Slippas/Super-S Premium Lubricants/Westlake Performance Tires/Carter's Pitstop BimmaCup), Dane Skeete (WRC Sol/CO Williams Sand & Lime/Automotive Art Subaru Impreza WRC S12) & Michael Worme (C2 Katspraddle Sweet Potato Vodka/COT/NautiLime/Autoderm/Ullyett’s Machine Shop/Reno Flip BimmaCup), 65pts
etc
For media information only. No regulatory value.
For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com [2]
web sites: www.rallybarbados.net [3]; www.barbadosrallyclub.com [4]
