This year’s Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Chefette MudDogs Safari Championship is gearing up for a thrilling finish, with Sunday’s Coastal Lubricants November Safari being the season finale.
With reigning MudDogs Champions Simon Parravicino and Andrew Croney not having returned to action since engine problems sidelined their Jeep Wrangler in June, and former champions Leslie Alleyne and Chris O’Neal (Suzuki Jimny Sport) also missing from Sunday’s entry list, the field is heavily weighted towards crews in Class B, which caters for less experienced and novice competitors.
Rebecca Clarke and teenager Austin Barber (Mitsubishi Pajero iO) are the current leaders of the Class B driver and navigator standings, respectively, six points clear of Tyrone Chase and Sameisha Williams (Suzuki Vitara), while George Mendes (Vitara) is tied for second in the drivers’ standings with Chase.
However, dropped scores bring into play three-time winners Alexander and Chelsea Gill (Isuzu DMax), who missed round four.
As the Rally Club’s off-road navigational championship nears the end of its 21st season, around two-thirds of this year’s participants have been competing in Class B and MudDogs Chairman Ricky Holder is encouraged for the future of the discipline.
“While overall numbers have been a little lower than last year, it has been good to see so many new names on our entry lists.
“Navigational events were the foundation of our club from the 1957 June Rally and have played a big role in developing drivers and navigators. Skill in navigation, combined these days with the ability of the driver to control his or her vehicle in tricky off-road conditions, are important talents for competitors in all disciplines,” Holder said.
Route-setters are Chris King and Warrick Eastmond, who finished third in the postponed Savvy on the Bay September Safari earlier this month in their Suzuki Jimny.
The first crew is set to leave the start at Hayman’s Factory, St Peter, at 8.31a.m., for the first route in the north and east of the island, including one of the popular Driver Challenges at around 11 a.m. in St Andrew.
After a brief stop-over at around 1 p.m. in Four Roads, St John, the second route will travel through that parish, St Philip and St George before the finish outside the offices of Motorsport Services in Haggatt Hall, St Michael, at around 4 p.m.
The results of Sunday’s event will be declared at the prizegiving on November 4 at Savvy on the Bay, Bay Street, Bridgetown. (PR/BT)
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