Barbados Today

A day of hard-fought competition is in prospect this Sunday when the top ten crews in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Chefette MudDogs Safari Championship points standings face off in the Carter’s Pit-stop September Safari.

With just four points separating the top two crews overall, and a tie at the top of the novices table, the battle lines are drawn.

The first crew is scheduled to leave the start in the car park at the Carters Complex, Wildey, St Michael at 8 a.m. There will be a lunchtime stop-over between routes one and two at approximately 11:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Conset Bay, St John, with the finish slated for around 4 p.m. in Foul Bay, St. Philip.

The location of any driver challenges is yet to be confirmed.

Route-setters are Kirk Watkins and Ben Norris, who finished second in this year’s Sol Go Even Further June Safari, after a lengthy lay-off from the discipline. The navigational systems used on Sunday will be BRC, Straight-line and Tulip, which look set to present crews with a testing challenge.

With three rounds out of five contested, and the dropped points system yet to come into play, the Chefette MudDogs Championships are closely poised. In the overall standings, Derek Gill and Andrew Croney (Mitsubishi Pajero) lead with 178 points, four ahead of Leslie Alleyne and Chris O’Neal (Isuzu D-Max), each crew having won one event this year.

It is even closer in the Chefette MudDogs Novice Championship, with Damien and Brandon Johnson (Suzuki Samurai) tied on 174 points with Julian Kirton and Dominic Straker (Jeep Wrangler). Kirton and Straker won in March and June, with the Johnsons victorious in April.

(RB)