Bajans rallyists back from Jamaica

BRIDGETOWN: The impressive Barbadians, headed by second placed driver Roger Skeete, are back home after an outstanding showing at the Jamaica Motoring Club’s Stages Rally last weekend. Skeete and co-driver Dave Crawford, in a Ford Escort Cosworth, placed only 48 seconds behind Jamaican winners Doug Gore and Mark Nelson, to snatch second spot — the highest placed foreign pair. The 22-stage event also attracted competitors from Japan, Sweden, Britain, Trinidad and Tobago, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Skeete believes he could have done better if he was not as “ragged” on the first day as he was. “I was perhaps a little too aggressive on the very first day,” Skeete told CMC Sport. “If we hadn’t thrown away so much time, I am sure we would have been able to fight more with fellows at the front of the field and exert some more pressure which would have made a difference for sure,” added Skeete, who was one of four Barbadian finishers in the top ten. Skeete and Crawford clocked one hour 18 minutes, 17 seconds, as Gore and Nelson, in a Mitsubishi Evolution VIII, clocked 1:17:29. Paul Bourne and Stuart Maloney took fourth in 1:18:47 for the Barbadians