Four ahead of BRC pack

Neil Corbin, in the H. Jason Jones/Nassco Ltd. Toyota Starlet, beat his class opposition by more than three seconds each time. (Picture by Trevor Thorpe.)

By Trevor Thorpe | Wed, May 02, 2012 - 12:03 AM

Four drivers have taken early leads in their respective groups in the race for the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Virgin Atlantic Driver’s and Class Championships.

Daryl Clarke and Neil Corbin are the tops in the Driver’s title chase while Sean Gill and Ian Warren lead the four-wheel-drive and two-wheel-drive standings respectively.

The drivers and co-drivers are preparing for this weekend’s Valvoline Shakedown Stages Rally, which will serve as round three of this year’s championship.

Clarke and Corbin both opened their respective accounts in the Spring Blaze double header last month, from Wilson Hill to Malvern.

They were the only two drivers to win fully-subscribed classes in both sections of the event, which was shared with the Motoring Club Barbados Inc. (MCBI).

Clarke, in the Mum’s Pasta Honda Civic won Modified 7 and finished 11th overall on the first run, and 15th overall on the reverse run.

Corbin, on the other hand, in the merged M6 and M5, turned in a good performance in the H. Jason Jones/Nassco Ltd. Toyota Starlet, beating the class opposition by more than three seconds each time.

Allan Maynard, in the Marshall Trading Toyota Starlet won SuperModified 9 and Jeremy Croney, driving a Peugeot 206 GTi also won their classes in both directions, against limited competition, while Ian “WeeWee” Warren, in the Automotive Art Suzuki Swift, was alone in SM10.

In the two-wheel drive championship, Warren leads with 30 points, six more than his closest challengers, Stuart Maloney, in the Valvoline Peugeot 306 Maxi and eight better than Logan Watson, in a BMW M3, who had shared the wins in March.

In the 4x4 Championship, Sean Gill, driving the Simpson Motors/Shell V-Power/Monster Energy Drink Suzuki SX4 WRC enjoyed an excellent start to the season.

He won part two of the Spring Blaze event and finished second to Paul “The Surfer” Bourne in the Chefette/LIME/Banks/Slam 101FM Ford Focus WRC06 in part one. Those results gave him a two-point advantage over Bourne.

Graeme Finlayson, competing in M8-A in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III also enjoyed back-to-back triumphs but as the class was under subscribed, he tied for fifth place with Geoff Noel in the Globe Finance Evo IX, in the four-wheel drive standings.