Powell’s Corolla wins rally

The first stage was the Bronte Run, a 6.4 km of twisty, muddy road that produced some fantastic performances from local and foreign drivers with several retirements occurring on this stage, evidence of the extreme nature of the sport.

The WRC Corolla did a best time of three minutes 22 seconds followed by the Castrol/Rallymac/Sweet Tamarind EVO 6 of Barry McKenzie who did 3:36. In third was the Stag/Ultra EVO 6 of Ainsley Lochan (3:41).

In the 2WD Drive Class, Rezan Mohammed/Arshad Mondro’s Lancer 1800 Turbo proved to be the fastest rally car once again on the Bronte recording 4:32.

Next came the Cedar Hill Stage, considered the best rally stage in Trinidad with its sweeping flat out loose corners and wide roadway.

Several competitors were seen in reverse action as they got caught out in some of the tight turns.

Powell again posted the fastest time of 2:11, followed by the consistent Ainsley Lochan (2:15) and Colin Khan (2:20).

In the 2WD Class, Rezan Mohammed posted a best of 2:33 followed by the Daiman Publishers-sponsored super-charged Corolla of Franklyn Seegobin/Kurt De Freitas in 2:44. In third was James Harris/Kevin Ablack in 2:54 in the Tropical/Oracle 2.0 Sunny.

The rally then moved to the central historic Gran Couva countryside for the Saturday night stages. The Preysal Zig Zag course was altered for safety reasons, due to the heavy rains during the day.

From as early as 6.30 pm. large groups of spectators had converged on the hillside at every vantage point to witness the night action.

The area was turned into “Tent City” with the rally’s corporate sponsors’ Stag Girls offering souvenirs to spectators while the rally cars fought their way around the many hairpin turns amid the cheers of the spectators and the mouthwatering aroma of Sham’s curry duck in the air.

The Castrol/Rallymac/Sweet Tamarind Green Mobile EVO 6 was back out after some technical repairs to the fuel system and posted a best time of 2:10, the fastest time for the Night Stage, followed by the Barbados Dentyne Ice Evo 6 in second (2:50) and the Stag/Ultra EVO 6 in third with 2:60.

Sunday Stages again were affected by the rain and the second best Rally Stage Road on the island— the famous Big Snake Run had to be cancelled.

An exciting reverse Zig Zag Run was substituted for both morning and evening, as the sun came out in all its glory and dried the track.

The Toyota Trinidad/ Ultra/ICSL Corolla WRC was at its best on this stage and consistently posted spectacular times of 1:26. Barry Gale’s Dentyne Ice Evolution 6 came in with a best time of 1:28 tying with Barry McKenzie in the Castrol Rallymac Evolution 6.

Rezan Mohammed’s Lancer Turbo retained his lead in the Shelford Robinson Tire Clinic Sunny by an amazing 30 seconds to capture the 2WD Championship despite gearbox failure and missing two stages.

The long-awaited event was staged after weeks of preparation and anticipation and started early at the Grand Bazaar Mall car park in Bamboo Settlement.

Competitors then made the trek to the Bronte/Borde Narve area in the southland just off the Cipero Road, San Fernando.

The foreign competitors were — Barry Gale/Ryan Rodriguez’s Dentyne Ice Evo 6 from Barbados; Harold Morley/Geoffrey Goddard’s WRC Subaru Impreza Sunbeach UK machine; and Steven Ollivierre/Dominic Ollivierre’s Evolution 8 Empire Cigarettes/Rum Please Mitsubishi from St Vincent which was pitted and ready to compete with the local drivers for gravel sideways action supremacy.

The corporate sponsorship from Stag and NP has definitely moved rallying closer to our Caribbean neighbour’s level and next year new stages are expected to be fully developed to offer a Caribbean-class tourism-boosting rally.

The TTRC thanked the foreign teams, Devi Nath, Gerrard Wilson, Ryan Ramsaran, Zorce Racing Magazine and TriniTuner.com for the thousands of photos, the officials, marshals and everyone who had contributed to the success of Rally Trinidad.

Official Results—

WRC: 1 John Powell/Nicolas Telfer — TTTL/TTML/Stag/NP Toyota Corolla (36:01)

Group 3A — 1 Ainsley Lochan/Scott Sheppard — Stag/NP/Josefs Mitsubishi Evo 6 (37:06); 2 Barry Gale/Ryan Rodriguez — Dentyne Ice Mitsubishi Evo 6 (37:21); 3 Colin Khan/Richard Ramsingh — ESSO/Flowertime Subaru Impreza WRX (39:07)

Group 1-4 — 1 Rezan Mohammed/Arshad Mondro — Mitsubishi Lancer GSR (45:33); 2 Shelford Robinson/Rajesh Ganar — Tire Clinic Nissan Sentra B13 (46:03); 3 Franklyn Seegobin/Kurt De Freitas — Daiman Publishers Toyota Corolla (46:41)

Overall Winners—

1John Powell/Nicolas Telfer — TTTL/TTML/Stag/NP Toyota Corolla (36:01); 2 Ainsley Lochan/Scott Sheppard — Stag/NP/Josefs Mitsubishi Evo 6 (37:06); 3 Barry Gale/Ryan Rodriguez — Dentyne Ice Mitsubishi Evo 6 (37:21).