Speed event roars off today

Paul ‘The Surfer’ Bourne is among the fancied drivers facing the starter in today’s 11-K speed event of the Motoring Club. (Picture by Trevor Thorpe.)

By Trevor Thorpe | Sun, April 15, 2012 - 12:03 AM

The 11-kilometre course from Drax Hall, St George to the Cliff, St John is expected to test drivers in today’s Field Insurance/Barbados Today speed event organized by the Motoring Club Barbados Inc. (MCB) starting at 1 p.m.

MCB’s president David Williams said such an event should keep the drivers, mechanics and spectators totally occupied for the entire exercise and is part of a set of new initiatives the club has formulated this year as part of its rebuilding.

The event will be made up of a practice run and three official runs, with a 15-minute break between each run and should provide much excitement for spectators.

It will be the last chance drivers will get to do any fine tuning and secure additional seat time before Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Automotive Art Shakedown Stages Rally on May 6.

Paul ‘The Surfer’ Bourne, in the Chefette/LIME/Slam101FM/MQI Ford Focus WRC and Sean Gill, in the Simpson Motors/Shell V-Power/Automotive Art/Monster Energy Suzuki SX4 WRC, the winners of the club’s Spring Blaze events head the list of starters.

They will be joined by Sol Rally Barbados defending champions driver Roger ‘The Sheriff’ Skeete, who will be at the wheel of the One World Group/Michelin/Simpson Motors/DaCostaManning Auto Centre/Virgin Atlantic Subaru Impreza S12, Roger ‘The Ninja’ HIll in the ExxonMobile/Motormac/Nassco Toyota Corolla WRC and Andrew Mallalieu in the Terra Caribbean Subaru Impreza WRX.

But the four-wheel drive competitors can expect a torrid time from two-wheel drive aces such as Roger ‘His Hotness’ Mayers and his brother Barry, in the Chefette/Delaware Dispensaries/Illusion Graphics Toyota Starlet.

Other contenders include Neil Armstrong, in a Chefette/Hankook Tyres Starlet; Neil Corbin in the H. Jason Jones/Nassco Ltd Toyota Starlet; Ian “WeeWee’ Warren at the wheel of the Automotive Art Suzuki Swift and Stuart Maloney in the Automotive Art/Valvoline Peugeot 306 Maxi, who will also be looking to prevent a clean sweep of the top places by the 4X4 drivers.

The father and son combination of St. Elmo and Sammy Cumberbatch, Sean Field, in the Field Insurance Peugeot 306, along with Scottish driver Graeme Finlayson, in a Mitsubishi Lancer and Turks & Caicos Island driver Paul Horton, who will be in a Ford Escort MkII, will also be in action.