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After the 11:45 a.m. start in the Farley Hill National Park, the 68 drivers and navigators in 34 cars settled the first six of the 12-stage rally in the north of the island, with the inform pair of Paul "The Surfer" Bourne and Stuart Maloney in the Subaru Impreza WRC S9 grabbing an early lead in the proceedings.
In fact, the pair posted four fastest times on stages laid out from Windmill to Lamberts and Sailor Gully to Welchtown, St Peter, before gearbox problem allowed another fancied pair, Roger "The Sheriff" Skeete the opportunity to take the other two stages.
Two other highly rated pairs, Roger "The Ninja" Hill and Graham Gittens in the Toyota Corolla WRC, and Barry Gale and Cherie Edgehill in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI, were also in the top six.
Sean Gill and Michael "Zippy" Cummins, the fastest two-wheel drive competitors, prevented a clean sweep of the top places by four-wheel drive cars by the time the rally halted for the dinner stop at the C. O. Williams Complex at Lears, St Michael.
But it was after the dinner stop that club officials and marshals found themselves in a race against time due to problems caused by spectators.
Apart from not complying with directions to stay behind the caution tape, others in double cab trucks and SUV's refused to remain parked in a safe place and defied the pleas of marshals and made the course from Woodland to Colleton slippery by dropping mud from their tyres on the course.
After officials cancelled the first run on the course, competitors were able to complete only the second run, when spectators took to the course again, either on foot or on motorcycles or vehicles.
The remaining three stages were eventually cancelled and drivers and navigators were hoping for a better reception when they arrived for the Bridgetown SuperSpecial, a first for motorsport.
However, as the marshals, club officials and competitors arrived they discovered that a Crop-Over-like crowd had already gathered and efforts to bring the crowd under control proved futile.
Drivers made a drive through before the stage was cancelled and 24-hours later Bourne and Maloney were declared winners with a total elapsed time of 12 minutes 34.53 seconds, ahead of Hill and Gittens whose time was 12 minutes 53.87 seconds, and Gale and Edgehill with a time of 12 minutes 55.73 seconds.
Neil Armstrong and Barry Ward in their Lancer Evolution VI finished fourth with a time of 13 minutes, 03.95 seconds.
Sean Gill and Michael Cummins won the group honours in S10 in their Suzuki Swift and grabbed an overall fifth spot with a time of 13 minutes, 05.67 seconds.
The fastest female in the rally was Edgehill, while the fastest two-wheel drive title was won by Gill. Josh Reid was the fastest rear-wheel car driver.
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