18/09/2013
Suzuki SX4 WRC wins MCBI Rally Of The Sun And Stars
ARMSTRONG/WARD RECORD 7 FASTEST TIMES EN-ROUTE TO VICTORY
A dominant performance by Neil Armstrong and Barry Ward secured outright victory for the Simpson Motors Suzuki SX4 WRC team on the 2013 MCBI Rally of The Sun and Stars in Barbados
The rally took place on Saturday 14th of September and was contested over 12 Special Stages. Ongoing engine development and a recent overall victory in the BRC Summer nights Sprint meant the Team approached the rally with genuine optimism and were expecting a good result.
As expected in Barbados at this time of the year, the weather did its best to complicate tyre choice and a last minute change to intermediate tyres was a gamble that paid off, as parts of Special Stages 1 and 2 were damp. Neil set fastest times in the two Stages putting him ahead of arch rivals Roger Skeete (Subaru Impreza WRC) and Paul Bourne (Ford Focus WRC). The team switched to slicks for Special Stage 3, and established a slim lead over the rest of the field of about 1 second.
Special Stage 4 saw a turbo speed sensor issue manifest itself which affected the launch control, and resulted in Neil stalling on the start due to a lack of boost. Fortunately Neil's super quick reactions and level head got the engine restarted and minimised the lost time to around 4 seconds to keep the Suzuki in amongst the leaders. Bourne was fastest on Stage 4 which put him just under a second ahead of Skeete but then on Stage 5 Bourne carried a little too much speed into a corner, lost traction on some mud and ended his rally in a wall. The battle for the lead was therefore reduced to a straight fight between the Suzuki SX4 WRC and Skeete in his Subaru WRC.
At the halfway stage of the rally, Neil was leading Skeete by around 1.5 seconds having clawed back the time lost during the stalled launch. Bar a hairy moment with a utility pole, and a stage start without all of the spotlights on, the remaining 3 Special Stages went extremely smoothly, with Neil maintaining his lead over Skeete and adding a further two fastest stage times to take the victory.
Neil had this to say: “It was a really good rally. We were very thankful it was largely dry and not a rally where we were constantly having to guess about tyres. We had a really good battle with Roger and we were sorry to see Bourne exit early. We are thrilled with the result”.
The Team’s Simon Willis said: “We would like to thank Neil and Barry for another stunning performance, the team for their continued hard work and determination, and the ever enthusiastic fans and supporters who make the events a pleasure to compete in. Our next rally will be overseas - more to come on this in the coming weeks!”
The Team thanks our sponsors - Monster, Sol, Chefette, Digicel, Virgin Atlantic, Gunk, Hankook Tyres, Redline Fuels, Simpson Finance and Simpson Motors.
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