Thursday, March 28, 2024

Serrao all set for Summer Nights

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AFTER TWO DAYS of testing his Subaru Impreza S9 at Vaucluse Raceway, St Thomas, driver Dean Serrao is ready for the next event on the motorsport calendar. Serrao will face the starter for the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Summer Night Speed Event from Hangman’s Hill to Lion Castle, St Thomas on August 17.
He was quick to say that the rescheduling of the Just Bring It Speed Event at Dark Hole, St Andrew, by Motoring Club Barbados Inc. (MCBI) last week, was a blessing in disguise.
All the motorsport marshals and rescue response crews were used by the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) and deployed at Bushy Park for the staging of the Soca Royale and Serrao said the break allowed him to complete repairs to the Subaru S9.
Serrao said he experienced many problems during June’s Sol Rally Barbados, including a disconnected brake-bias cable, which affected cornering; problems with fuel and the water injection system; and the front brakes binding and sticking to the disc, resulting in him using up many brake pads during the rally.
But having surmounted those problems, he is confident of a better showing in the ex-Petter Solberg Subaru Impreza S9 in which Paul Bird finished second to Kris Meeke in 2008.
He said Brett Judd and his team at Pro-Auto Works would be responsible for the technical aspects of the car and he was ready to take on the main challenge in his group from Roger ‘The Ninja’ Hill in the Toyota Corolla WRC.
“Hill is my main concern; none of the other drivers in the WRC group,” Serrao said. “The car is ready and I am ready. Just a few small things we will be looking at, and tweaking between now and the time we arrive at the start line.”
Indicating that he planned to contest all the remaining events in Barbados, Serrao dispelled any thoughts of competing in Rally Jamaica this year, but was eying a rally in Britain as his Ford Escort Cosworth, which was shipped to England for repairs, was ready and he would like to compete in a rally there.
“I will not be taking that car back to Trinidad and Tobago … I would like to do a rally in England and then put it up for sale,” Serrao said.
He was not the only driver not bothered by the postponement of MCBI speed event to September 1.
Championship leader Rhett Watson was comforted by the news as his BMW M3 was not fully ready for competition.
“I was not quite ready for the event, but I would have started nonetheless. The cancellation of the event last weekend would give me the time for my technical crew and me to get the car ready for the day’s action,” he said.
Watson, who also leads Super Modified (SM) 11, has 100 points and is tied at the top of the Motoring Club’s standings with Josh Read, challenger for the two-wheel drive honours and the champion driver’s title.
Read, who drives the Toyota Starlet, also leads SM 10. Watson also shares the top spot in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) standings with Conor Roach, who leads the Clubman Class, with 105 points.
Drivers will be allowed a practice run and three timed runs in the BRC’s Summer Night Speed Event which is slated to start at 6 p.m.

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