Five-way fight for Rally Trinidad

Five drivers in the fastest class, all with one aim of being crowned Rally Trinidad 2017 Champion, will be in action today. Who will have that honour on Sunday afternoon to have their names inscribed in the history books forever? This is the 4WD class, Group A, or as they say, where the big boys come to play. There is a mix of a past Rally Trinidad winner, a past Solodex Champion, past Rookies of the Year winners, an all-round racer and the youngest competitor in the field stepping up from Group N to Group A.

2015 TTRC Overall Drivers Champion and Rally Trinidad Champion, James Betts, will be starting as car #1. While not the position he was hoping for, James, who is co-driven by TTRC president Robert Cadiz, will play the role of sweeper for several of the stages. And I say several because James has a love/hate relationship with the Rally’s opening Stage, Bronte.

Should he survive today, then he will surely be hard to beat come Sunday. But we will see.

A rebuilt engine and driveline, and a full season of racing on the cards, the aim is to take the car to Rally Jamaica come November.

“A baptism of fire” was how Ryan Pinheiro described the upcoming rally and 2017 season.

With a newly rebuilt car in every sense of the word, it was also built to participate in Rally Barbados in June and will be shipped out next week - no doubt after a wash.

Co-driven by long-time friend Ross Vieira, the team’s outlook is to be in the hunt for the overall championship by year’s end, as it’s up to the driver and navigator to see not only their rally car’s potential but their own in the forthcoming season.

Also sporting a newly rebuilt car, from front to back and all that’s in between, Matthew Russell, co driven by Brian Bhagwandass, is taking square aim finishing the year on the top of the group and within the top three overall at season’s end.

Adopting a Frank Kelly vision of “win it or bin it”, Matthew, piloting his Mitsubishi Evolution 3, should be exciting to watch all season long. Joining the fight to the finish would be Noel Junior Phillips, co driven by Neval Dindial, in a car that is all too familiar with the stages of Trinidad and Tobago, if not wider Caribbean.

His newly acquired Mitsubishi Evolution 3, formerly owned by Kumar Ramdass, who acquired it from none other than John Powell.

Junior, with circuit and boat racing experience to his name, should not be one to overlook over the next two days. Rounding out the Group, is the club’s youngest driver, though certainly not by age, Harold Morley, driving his Subaru Sti N16, co driven by Shiva Maharaj. A former UK Rally Champion with many rally wins to his name, Harold is one of the club’s most treasured drivers with many a rally tale to tell, never afraid to speak his mind on growing the sport of rallying here in Trinidad and Tobago. This year, Harold has stepped up in class, from Group N to Group A, and should be interesting to see him take on this new challenge.