Leslie Alleyne and Chris O’Neal claimed their third victory in the five rounds of this year’s Barbados Rally Club (BRC) MudDogs Safari Championship in last Sunday’s Nassco November Safari, but it was not enough to unseat the champions-elect for 2012, Chris Armstrong and Wayne Clarke.
Armstrong and Clarke, who won the season’s other two events, were the route-setters for this year’s finale, which was described by competitors as a “fair and fun event”.
Clarke, who retained the champion navigator title he won for the first time last year, is the only competitor to have won the BRC’s June Rally (now Safari) five times, and has a reputation for setting very tricky events.
As Armstrong explained, however, the plan was different this time round.
“The aim was to set a relatively easy rally, to encourage novices especially; on a scale of one to ten, the event was a five for difficulty.
“It was very dry, and we were hoping for rain to make it a bit more interesting. We made the driver challenges longer and more enjoyable. As a driver myself, I know that drivers like longer challenges.”
According to MudDogs chairman Warren Gollop, the plan worked.
“It was very apparent that the novices stood a good chance of upsetting the apple cart, as the pros were clearly overthinking Clarke’s intentions, and not taking the instructions at face value. So much so that novice team Josh Plaza and Rashid Nakhuda were leading everyone in route two, with zero penalties, until very late in the day.” (PR)
