The number of participants for Sunday’s Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) 2012 MudDogs Safari Championship and the Chefette MudDogs Safari Novice Championship is fast approaching 100.
The fourth of five rounds in the Shelbury Construction September Safari is scheduled to get underway at 8:01 a.m. when the first crew leaves Pool Plantation Yard, St John.
It will finish at Barbados Clay Target Shooting Association (BCTSA) Club House at Searles, Christ Church, at approximately 4:30 p.m. and there will be a lunch stop at Chefette Six Roads, St Philip as well as two driver challenges during the afternoon session.
“It is great to see new names added to the list at every event,” chairman Warren Gollop said. “Chris Thornhill and Michael Rodriguez have previously only contested our MudFests, so are totally new to safari, while we have another two drivers and two navigators not yet seen for the season. That brings us to 95 in the championship events, but if you include the newcomers who try out our practice safaris, we’re probably already comfortably past 100.”
Biddy Barber and Warrick Eastmond, both experienced navigators, have set the route for this round.
“Sunday’s event promises to be fun and relatively straightforward, at least on paper,” Gollop added.
“We are hoping that the recent inclemency of the weather continues into the weekend, which will make it very interesting and enjoyable. With only one more event to follow this one, all the crews need to be on top of their game. Once the dropped score rule comes into play, it looks as though we will have a real close fight right to the wire in both the overall and Chefette novice championships.”
With two rounds to go, Chris Armstrong and Wayne Clarke, winners of the season’s opening event in March, respectively, lead the overall driver and navigator standings, with Ryan Corbin and Dustin Edwards just two points behind.
Once a dropped score is taken into account, however, they slip into second and third place, respectively, behind Leslie Alleyne and Chris O’Neal, who won both the Chefette April Safari and the Sol Go Further 55th Anniversary June Safari.
Among the novices, the current leader of the driver standings, Dominic Straker, is on course to consolidate his lead in the absence of his closest rival Aswad Bannister, while fifth-placed Matthew Durant is another missing from Sunday’s entry list.
Three of the top six novice navigators are also absent this weekend, including first and second placed Nicholas Pinto and Nyere Jones. With all competitors required to drop their lowest score, this is set for a thrilling climax.
The prize-giving ceremony will be held at the BCTSA Club House on Monday evening once results are made final. (PR/SAT)
