Leslie Alleyne and Chris O’Neal re-wrote the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) record books at the weekend (June 24/25) with victory in the Sol 60th Anniversary June Safari, despite a scare on the final route which made them “pleasantly surprised to have pulled it off”. Alleyne’s eighth win moves him two ahead of fellow ‘June’ veteran Wayne Clarke, O’Neal brings the list of four-time winners to six, while the partnership has set a new record for the highest number of wins in the shortest time frame, four in six years.
Campaigning their familiar Simpson Motors/Shell Spirax/Shell Rimula/Maxxis Isuzu D-Max, Alleyne and O’Neal finished the overnight event with 990 penalties, giving them a winning margin of 198 over Jean-Marc Cozier and Andrew Croney (Market Hill Farms/Country View Bar & Grill/West Side Security Services Honda Pioneer), with Ryan Corbin and Dustin Edwards (Corbin’s Catering/Mahogany Ridge Toyota Hilux) third, another 254 penalties behind.
But it might have been very different, says Alleyne: “We worked hard throughout the event, but thought we had thrown it away in route 4, when we doubled back to check an area where we were a bit sceptical about a few of the diagrams in case we had missed a control. This put us very late in a route that was going to be won with very low penalties! We drove hard and caught back our timing within about 30 minutes and fortunately only incurred 56 penalties. This could have ended a lot worse!”
Damien Johnson and Justin Lynch (Dce Tuned Suzuki Samurai) finished ninth overall and top Novice crew, while 2008 winners of ‘The June’ and MudDogs Champions Barry Gale and Neil Barnard (Gale's Agro Products/809 Design Toyota Hilux) came out on top of the eight crews attracted to contest the final route on Sunday morning. Many had not tackled a navigational event for some years, the field including many well-known motor sport figures, including John Corbin, Andrew Jones, Stephen Mayers and David Reece.
Two of Alleyne’s eight wins have been claimed as Navigator, for Geoff Noel in 1996, then Trevor Manning in 2011, the rest as Driver, two with wife AnnaLee navigating, the most recent four with O’Neal. There are now six on the list of four-time winners, O’Neal joining Chris Armstrong, Sean Gill, Don Hunte, Andrew Mallalieu and Richard Rose, while Alleyne and O’Neal’s four wins in five years beats Gill and Mallalieu’s four in nine.
Celebrating six decades of motor sport organisation, which started with the first June Rally in 1957, the weekend’s event used the same start and finish points - Applewhaites and Vaucluse, both in St Thomas – between which the crews tackled around 150 miles. There were four routes, set by Sean Gill, Robin Hinds, Clive Howell and Paul Marshall.
Alleyne was full of praise for the route-setters: “What made this rally even more interesting was that each route was set by a different person, so you never had the chance to build a rhythm and understand a route-setter. Thanks to all four for doing an outstanding job, but I would especially like to mention Paul Marshall for our favourite route - it was practically flawless. We always love night rallying and routes 2 and 3 did not disappoint. MudDogs Chairman Ricky Holder and his team did a marvellous job in pulling all the resources together, and thanks to Anna-Lee and Treesa for staying up all night to provide results within 30 minutes of the finish. Finally, thanks to our sponsors for their invaluable help in making all of this happen.”
Chris Armstrong and Wayne Clarke (Toyota Hilux) led after route 1, from Applewhaites to the Dinner Halt at Sol Speightstown, St Peter; the leading crews were closely-matched, with a spread of just 184 penalties from first to fifth. Cozier and Croney were second, last year’s winners Michael Ward and Warrick Eastmond (Regional Fire & Security/Quality Tyre/Off Road Solutions Suzuki Jimny) third, with Alleyne and O’Neal fourth, followed by Ryan Corbin and Dustin Edwards (Corbin’s Catering/Mahogany Ridge Toyota Hilux).
Victory in route 2, which carried crews south to Sol Redmans, St Thomas, moved Alleyne/O’Neal in to the lead, 128 penalties ahead of Armstrong and Clarke, an advantage they consolidated in route 3, which ended at Sol Six Roads, St Philip, at around daybreak on Sunday. By now Cozier/Croney had moved up to second place, 254 penalties behind, with Corbin/Edwards third. The final route had been set to attract crews with less specialised off-road vehicles than those used by many of the MudDogs regulars and headed north-west to the Vaucluse Raceway (VRW); no fewer than six crews cleaned the route, incurring no penalties.
Counter to usual MudDogs practice, with results posted mid-week after the event, results were being calculated overnight, to facilitate a Prizegiving and social at VRW, very much in the family spirit of the Barbados Rally Club’s early days. BRC MudDogs Sub-Committee Chairman Ricky Holder said: “There are many people to thank for their help in making the Club’s 60th Anniversary Safari such a success: the route-setters, who did a great job; Graham Bannister, son of Founder Member Dennis Bannister, for acting as the starter for routes 1 and 4; all the marshals for working at all hours during the night; the behind-the-scenes results coordinators, who made sure we could enjoy the Prize-giving on Sunday. I would also like to thank Rally Club Chairman Mark Hamilton for his great assistance with the organising of the event, and for cooking jerk pork for everyone at the social, and Vaucluse Raceway for allowing us to have the Prize-giving and after party at the Clubhouse. Finally, by all accounts, everyone had a great time I and the guys got what they wanted early on Sunday morning . . . rain. And lots of it!”
Sol 60th Anniversary June Safari, June 24/25
Chefette MudDogs Safari Championship – round 3
1st Leslie Alleyne/Chris O’Neal (Simpson Motors/Shell Spirax/Shell Rimula/Maxxis Isuzu D-Max), 990 penalties
2nd Jean-Marc Cozier/Andrew Croney (Market Hill Farms/Country View Bar & Grill/West Side Security Services Honda Pioneer), 1188pens
3rd Ryan Corbin/Dustin Edwards (Corbin’s Catering/Mahogany Ridge Toyota Hilux), 1442pens
4th Chris Armstrong/Wayne Clarke (Toyota Hilux), 1568pens
5th Michael Ward/Warrick Eastmond (Regional Fire & Security/Quality Tyre/Off Road Solutions Suzuki Jimny), 2098pens
6th Wayne Manning/Willie Hinds (Black Bess Group Suzuki Samurai), 2436pens
7th George Mendes/Gary Mendes (G & G Sales & Services Mitsubishi L200 Sportero), 2692pens
8th Nicolas Lorde/Brett Barber (Comfeet/Konstruk Caribbean Inc/NL Engineering/First Steps Property Services Land Rover Discovery), 2946pens
9th Damien Johnson/Justin Lynch (Dce Tuned Suzuki Samurai), 3464pens
10th Richard Hinkson/Kevin-Jon Maninng (Windforce Tyres Suzuki Samurai), 4182pens etc
Route 1: 1st Armstrong/Clarke, 322pens; 2nd Cozier/Croney, 352pens; 3rd Ward/Eastmond, 436pens; 4th Alleyne/O’Neal, 490pens; 5th Corbin/Edwards, 506pens; etc
Route 2: 1st Alleyne/O’Neal, 182pens; 2nd Armstrong/Clarke, 478pens; 3rd Cozier/Croney, 528pens; 4th Corbin/Edwards, 596pens; 5th Ward/Eastmond, 598pens; etc
Route 3: 1st Alleyne/O’Neal, 262pens; 2nd Cozier/Croney, 308pens; 3rd Corbin/Edwards, 340pens; 4th Manning/Hinds, 598pens; 5th Armstrong/Clarke, 768pens; etc
Route 4: equal 1st Cozier/Croney, Corbin/Edwards, Armstrong/Clarke, Mendes/Mendes, Robert Warren/Ian Warren (Land Rover Defender) & Barry Gale/Neil Barnard (Gale's Agro Products/809 Design Toyota Hilux), 0pens
Route 4 Only: 1st Gale/Barnard, 0pens; 2nd Stephen Mayers/David Reece (Toyota Hilux), 10pens; 3rd Sean Gill/Megan Gill (Chevrolet Colorado), 28pens; 4th Edward Corbin/Paul Bourne (Automotive Art/Pro-Sales/Hilti Toyota Hilux), 42pens; 5th Mark Hamilton/Sean Dowding (Toyota Hilux), 44pens; etc
Chefette MudDogs Safari Novice Championship – round 3
1st Johnson/Lynch, 3464pens
2nd Hinkson/Manning, 4182pens
Route 1: 1st Hinkson/Manning, 906pens; 2nd Johnson/Lynch, 1798pens
Route 2: 1st Johnson/Lynch, 844pens; 2nd Hinkson/Manning, 1080pens
Route 3: 1st Johnson/Lynch, 790pens; 2nd Hinkson/Manning, 1996pens
Route 4: 1st Johnson/Lynch, 32pens; 2nd Hinkson/Manning, 200pens
Photo Coreyl Reece
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Web sites: www.barbadosrallyclub.com, www.muddogsbarbados.com
