Record Day at Vaucluse Raceway
Manning back on top after hot competition
Records were broken in abundance at the Vaucluse Raceway
(VRW) in St Thomas on Sunday (May 22), as the VRW International
RallySprint got the competitive action of the fifth annual
Barbados Rally Carnival under way.
The largest-ever entry at VRW - 64 drivers - contested more
races in one day than ever before, a remarkable total of 86;
while many drivers posted 'personal best' times, it was the
battle for the lap record between Trevor 'Electric Micey'
Manning and Paul 'Surfer' Bourne on which many in the large
crowd were focussed.
From an international perspective, it was not too good a
weekend for the European contingent, with five of the 19 cars
shipped over for the Carnival events failing to survive Saturday's
three qualifying sessions. Crews are facing a busy few days
trying to repair their cars in time for Rally Barbados 2005
this weekend.
It was clear from quite early that a new outright lap record
was possible; the mark stood at 2min 03.43sec, set by Bourne
in his Banks/Pirelli Subaru Impreza WRC last year. Prior to
that, Manning had held the record since the Raceway opened
in 2000, although his personal best in the Shell Helix/Courts/Automotive
Art/Kerridge/ Simpson Motors/Garbage Master Mitsubishi Lancer
Evo VIII was a couple of seconds shy at 2:05.64s.
While Manning set the pace, with a lap in 2:04.24, it seemed
that Bourne (2:05.88) might not be the only challenger; others
on the pace included Roger 'Ninja' Hill, who clocked 2:07.53
in the Mobil 1/Nassco/Motormac/Michelin Toyota Celica GT4
and Roger 'The Sheriff' Skeete, who lapped in 2:08.74, despite
the Havoline/McEnearney Quality/Michelin Ford Focus WRC looking
decidedly skittish.
Of
the overseas runners, English drivers Ray Brammer (Subaru
Impreza WRX) and Kevin Procter (Ford Puma Evo 4 x 4) were
the quickest, Brammer just ahead on 2:09.72. Among the British
casualties on Saturday was John Hardman (right); his only
run before the four-wheel-drive Ford Fiesta Cosworth's engine
expired had been quicker than Brammer's first run, form which
would have certainly seen him bracketed with the front-runners,
too.
Qualifying inspired a number of impressive performances
right through the classes - Sean Gill's reign as 'two-wheel-drive
King' looked potentially under threat; while the double RallySprint
Champion posted a time of 2:12.98 in the Suzuki Ignis JWRC,
others looking hot included Steve Ollivierre from St Vincent,
with 2:14.57 in his Mitsubishi Mivec, and Scotland's Kenny
Hall, who clocked 2:14.97 on his second run (the gearbox in
his Vauxhall Corsa-Suzuki died on run three and required overnight
rebuilding).
Sunday was hot: in front of the largest crowd VRW has hosted
for some time, racing was of an extremely high standard and
run in perfect weather conditions. In a variation of normal
practice, in which each group would be settled at one time,
the organisers ran the first-round knock-outs for each group
one after the other, so four-wheel-drive action was seen earlier
in the day than usual . . . and, with it, came some shock
results!
Neither
Bourne nor Skeete made it past the first round, Surfer being
beaten by Proctor, then Skeete falling prey to Harold 'Doc'
Morley (Subaru Impreza WRC); during the losers' run-offs just
before the lunchbreak, however, there was some consolation
for Bourne (right), who broke his own lap record, posting
a new time of 2:02.87 in what he later described as "my
best-ever lap round here. I got the hairpins right every time,
the high-speed sections, too. I don't see how I could have
gone any faster than I did."
The action changed up a gear after lunch, with the run-offs
to settle which eight drivers would go through to the Group
winner's Handicap KnockOut. Production 1, 2 & 3 merged
was won in fine style by the impressive Tristan Gibbs, on
his first outing in the ex-Freddie Gale Toyota Starlet Turbo;
he first beat Graham Gittens in a similar car, then his brother
Sean Gibbs (Datsun 120Y). Sunday marked the debut of the new
Suzuki Ignis Sport in the hands of Neil Barnard, who finished
third in the group, after Gittens crashed out of the run-off,
seriously damaging the Starlet, although uninjured himself.
VRW RallySprint Cup leader James Betts (Opel Corsa) emerged
victorious from some exciting encounters in Modified 5, first
beating Wayne Manning (Peugeot 205XS), then Brett Clarke (Suzuki
Swift). Kenny Hall was beaten by Clarke in an extremely close
finish, but went on to defeat Manning in the run-off for third
place.
Gill was made to work for his victory in Modified 6, beating
the determined Kirk Watkins (Toyota Corolla) by a narrow margin
in his heat, then keeping England's Paul McMullen (Proton
Satria Kitcar) at bay in the final. Watkins, the only driver
to have contested every VRW RallySprint, beat Ollivierre in
the third-place run-off.
In Modified 7, with less than two seconds covering the fastest
three cars, close racing was guaranteed, and it was delivered.
Edward Corbin (Toyota Corolla SR) first beat Greg Cozier (Ford
Escort RS2000), then Roger Marshall (Hyundai Accent).
SuperModified 9 & 10 produced another fine display from
a VRW novice - in a battle of Toyota Starlets, Josh Read beat
Karl Waterman in his heat, although he couldn't quite see
off the experienced Simon Gillmore (Peugeot 205) in the final.
Gillmore had beaten Matthew Staffner in his heat, the Toyota
Corolla driver also losing to Waterman in the third-place
run-off.
With a trio of Mark II Ford Escorts, SuperModified 11 was
another guaranteed crowd-pleaser, Mark Hamilton winning the
final from Welshman Gary Thomas, who had earlier defeated
his fellow-countryman Rupert Lomax.
Jonathan
Still and England's Martin Stockdale (right) faced one another
in their BMW M3s in the SuperModified 12 final, Stockdale
having earlier beaten his team-mate Hugh Peat (Ford Escort
RS Cosworth). The local man came out the winner, but by a
very narrow margin after a race that had the spectators in
full voice.
By the time the Modified 8 run-offs were due to start, the
spectator areas were packed, and alive with anticipation .
. . first to go were Manning and Hill, the race a lot closer
than many had anticipated. In the process of beating Hill,
Manning regained his lap record, shaving nearly a full second
off Bourne's mark from earlier in the day, the record now
2:01.88.
Manning went on to beat Procter in the final, in which the
Englishman set a PB of 2:04.08, which was also good enough
for the best overseas time of the day, repeating his feat
(albeit around 10 seconds faster) of the International RallySprint
two years before. Hill, too, established a PB, at an impressive
2:03.99, in the process of defeating Morley in the third-place
run-off.
As
usual, the Handicap KnockOuts brought out the best in people,
the impressive young Gibbs (right) reaching the final, after
seeing off Betts and Gill who, in turn had defeated Corbin
in his quarter-final. His opponent in the last race of the
day was Hamilton, who had beaten Gillmore and Still; Manning
suffered a throttle body failure in his run against Still,
so could not take on the BMW.
Both Gibbs and Hamilton set their best time of the weekend
in the Handicap Final, 'Hammie' bringing the rapid youngster's
run of success to an end, his victory coming by just a couple
of lengths, another close-run thing on a day of quality racing
in a Carnival atmosphere. The end-of-day prize-giving was
well-attended, the winners receiving champagne from Axis Inc,
plaques from D Blades Trophies Ltd and rally DVDs of Irish
producer 'Plum' Tyndall's visits to Barbados.
The Vaucluse Raceway International RallySprint was organised
by the Vaucluse Raceway Motorsport Club and supported by Axis
Inc, the Simpson Motors Rally Team and D Blades Trophies Ltd.
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