Bajan survivors all finish in top seven
Roger Skeete made a triumphant return to Petcom Rally Jamaica at the weekend (December 5-7), repeating the podium finish of his last visit in 2003. With co-driver Robert Simmons, he finished second in the Michelin/FB Batteries Subaru Impreza WRC S9, 1 minute and 50 seconds behind Jeffrey Panton, despite a challenging weekend.
The Jamaican's victory was his sixth in the event's history and his first in the ex-Colin McRae Ford Focus WRC01 which he acquired just a few months ago; after alternator problems resulted in an early 80-second penalty, he and co-driver Mike Fennell Jnr won nine of the 23 stages run and was outside the top two only twice.
Gary Gregg and Hugh Hutchinson won 13 stages in their similar ex-Carlos Sainz Focus, but their rally lead and their hopes of a fourth consecutive victory evaporated late on Sunday, with seven minutes lost on the final New Works stage. The results remain provisional in respect of third and fourth places overall, following a number of issues - the most recent published results show Gregg in provisional third place.
It was not all plain sailing for Skeete, who claimed one fastest stage time - the overnight replacement of his heated front windscreen for a normal one would have raised visibility issues, had the weather deteriorated on Sunday, while a failing third gear was another challenge on Sunday.
Currently listed fourth overall is Group N winner Doug Gore, who beat Skeete to the flag in 2003. With co-driver Mark Nelson in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, Gore was fastest in Group on 17 stages, challenged throughout by James Betts, who finished fourth in Group N last year, co-driven by Jeremy Gonsalves. Betts clocked three fastest times, finishing a creditable fifth overall and second in Group N.
On the same weekend that Sweden's Patrick Flodin claimed the first Production Car World Rally Championship win for Subaru's new-shape Impreza N14, finishing 11th overall in Wales Rally GB, former British Road Rally Champion Harold Morley clocked up his third Rally Jamaica top 10 finish in five years in his recently-acquired N14.
With experienced co-driver Geoffrey Goddard, he added seventh overall (fourth in Group N) to the fourth (2004) and eighth (2006) places achieved in his previous Impreza World Cars . . . an impressive result in a car he had not driven until it arrived in Jamaica. The N14 sustained damage to the bodywork, radiator and power steering when he hit a gate in Friday's SuperSpecial in the National Stadium but, once repaired, his pace on the stages drew many favourable comments.
Barbados had lost three of its crews by mid-morning Saturday: Paul Bourne and Stuart Maloney (Banks/Texaco/B-Mobile/
Worse was to befall Jonathan Still, co-driven by Jamaica's David Anderson in his Hitachi Power Tools/Ocean Spray/Philips Lighting/Crane & Equipments/Castrol Oils BMW M3; they crashed at high speed and, while the car did not roll, it suffered significant body damage. Still reported some back pain, but a hospital check confirmed no serious injury, although he was unable to restart. Later in the day, Dean Serrao and Clint Gregory (Subaru Impreza N12) also retired.
Of the 41 entries, only 18 were classified as overall finishers, the other high-profile retirements including Mexico's Ricardo Trivino, with Spanish co-driver Checo Salom in their 2003 Peugeot 206 WRC; having quickly got to grips with the rough Jamaica stages - he was lying fourth overnight - Trivino reappeared for the stages in New Kingston.
Petcom Rally Jamaica 2008
Provisional results
1st Jeffrey Panton/Michael Fennell Jnr (JA9 Ford Focus WRC), 1h 23m 53.892s
2nd Roger Skeete/Robert Simmons (JA9 Subaru Impreza WRC S9), 1h 25m 42.164s
3rd Gary Gregg/Hugh Hutchinson (JA9 Ford Focus WRC), 1h 29m 18.249s
4th Doug Gore/Mark Nelson (JN8 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X), 1h 29m 22.473s
5th James Betts/Jeremy Gonsalves (JN8 Subaru Impreza N9), 1h 31m 01.645s
6th David Lee/Colin Chambers (JN8 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII), 1h 32m 33.659s
7th Harold Morley/Geoff Goddard (JN8 Subaru Impreza N14), 1h 33m 32.103s
8th Natasha Chang/Guy Fraser (JN8 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V), 1h 40m 40.877s
9th Salvador Solis/Nigel Lyn (JN8 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo II), 1h 42m 54.072s
10th Gordon Brandon/Marcell Brandon (JN8 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III), 1h 46m 43.162s
etc
For further information, robin@bradfax.com
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