After the Thursday Scrutineering at Grand Bazaar and Friday’s Opening Ceremony at the Queen’s Park Savannah, the much anticipated Saturday’s stages took the teams to the smooth and rolling hills of Bronte (12km) and Cedar Hill (9.6km).

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With TTRC’s special guest 3x British Rally Champion Mark Higgins comparing these stages to Rally New Zealand, Australia, and Portugal, it was certainly going to be an epic day of rallying. With very little cloud cover, the weather was extremely hot but the wind kept up offering some relief from the heat as well as blowing away the dust trail behind cars which helped to make the 1-min competitor interval very manageable.

John ‘Penti’ Powell and Nicholas Telfer (Shell Helix Ultra / Intercontinental WRC Subaru S12B) began their Rally Trinidad 2010 bid with strong competition from the likes of Paul Bourne (Banks / Virgin Atlantic / LIME / Cheffettes WRC Ford Focus 2007), Dean Serrao (Scorpion Bed Liners WRC Subaru S9), and the formidable UK duo of World #16 driver Mark Higgins and internationally renowned co-driver Nicky Grist (Shell Helix Ultra Mitsubishi Evo IX).

From the first stage however, Powell’s fight was made a little easier with the very unfortunate exit of Dean Serrao when his car experienced a major mechanical problem and caught fire toward the end of Stage 1. Although both driver and co-driver (Michael Worme) made it out safely the car burned to its barely recognizable shell. With Stage 1 cancelled as a result, Stage 2 became the first test of mettle between one of the region’s fiercest WRC rivals and the rest of the 37 teams representing Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, and the UK. Powell starting 3^rd off the line managed to put 34 seconds between himself and Bourne, and a solid 14 second lead over Higgins/Grist on the very next stage. This was to be the order of the day as Stage 3 saw Powell add another 20 seconds to his lead on Bourne. Higgins/Grist held on to within 7 seconds of Powell but the WRC Subaru S12B was simply too much for the Grp N Evo IX to handle it seems. Stage 4 saw the end of the rally for Bourne with a fluid leak in the engine bay. Not wanting to risk suffering the same fate of Dean Serrao, Bourne opted to retire at this point but it probably would not have mattered as Powell’s pace would go relatively unmatched for the rest of Saturday. With Bourne and Serrao out by the Lunch break it left Higgins/Grist to battle Powell alone as Lochan/Dumas (NP Ultra / STAG / Josef’s Sports Bar / Oakley Mitsubishi Grp A Evo IX) although fast simply did not have the machinery to keep up with the flying Powell. The Bajan Grp A Team of Neil Armstrong/Jeremy Croney (Breeze / Hancook / Gunk Mitsubishi Grp A Evo VI) would have to wait until later Saturday afternoon to begin to mount any challenge to Lochan / Dumas as turbo problems plagued the start of their day putting them quite a bit back of the local Grp A boys. A very promising performance from 2010 rookie team Stuart Johnson/Lee Quesnel in their Grp N Subaru Impreza STI saw them move up to 4^th overall by the end of Day 1 (Saturday) with regional 2WD top dogs Ian ‘Wee Wee’ Warren/Graham Gittens (Shell V-Power / Lifestyle Motors / Automotive Art Suzuki Swift) and Mark Hamilton/Allan Kinch (Powermaster Batteries / Vavoline Ford Escort Mk II) no more than a minute of the top 4WD teams. The rolling stages of Bronte and Cedar Hill would have had many RWD vehicles guessing strategies but the Bajan boys in the 1974 classic Escort were right at home mounting a solid attack on the alongside Warren in the mighty Swift in what would be Warren’s 3^rd bid for top 2WD honours at Rally Trinidad. And while much of the Bajan contingent were coping well with the challenging stages in Trinidad’s southland, Bronte and Cedar Hill would prove to be the end of the Rally for some of TnT’s hopefuls. Robert Cadiz/Jason Costelloe (Tropical Power / TOTAL / BFGoodrich / Coors Light Mitsubishi Evo VIII) after posting one of the faster times on the opening stage in Bronte, came into to a tight right hander too aggressively and suffered a bad crash putting them out for the weekend. The same section of Cedar Hill also claimed 2009 Rookie of the Year Donald Gopaul/Michael Dinnoo (Castrol Toyota Starlet). TnT’s other big hopeful Barry Mckenzie/Barry Samaroo (Rallymac / Sunoco Mitsubishi Evo VI) managed to get some very quick times in actually setting the 3^rd fastest time on Stage 3 even after being yellow flagged, but suspension problems put them out by the end of Saturday and made a Sunday return impossible.

The battle for local 2WD dominance was hot from the start with Darrel Ramessar/Adam Archer (Redline / Cargo Consolidators Grp 2-4 Mitsubishi Mivec) putting down the fastest of the local 2WD teams. Rezan Mohammed/Arshad Mondro (Shell Helix Ultra / Vigourade Grp 2-4 Mitsubishi Colt) along with Fawaz Mohammed/Shiva Maharaj (Monster Energy Drink / Shell Helix Ultra Grp 2-4 Mitsubishi Colt) were the ones to watch in Group 2-4 as they went back and forth all day long. 2 seconds separated these two teams at the end of Day 1, with a broken cross-member plaguing Ramessar putting him out of the overall standings. Ansel Ali/Kender Nicholas (Amsoil / Sherwin Williams / Xtreme Fireworks / Chief Curry Mazda 323) although a bit back on pace from the 2-4 front runners proved the age old rally strategy of to finish first – first you must finish. They put in a solid performance eventually taking 3^rd in group capitalizing on the attrition from Ramessar.

By the time the Rally moved to the 2.9km spectator stage in Preysal on Saturday evening, there were at least 7 teams already out and the attrition rate reminded those still in the rally that consistency was more the order of the day than trying to post the fastest times. Whilst there were teams pulling out for various reasons, the battle up top still raged on. The 4 shorter stages in Preysal allowed Higgins, Lochan, and Johnson some much needed relief from the increasing lead from Powell, and actually saw the top 4 all within a 3-second gap on Stage 9. By the end of Saturday’s stages the leader-board was no surprise with Powell/Telfer taking a 53 second cushion over Higgins/Grist, and Lochan/Dumas trailing by close to 3 minutes off the flying Subaru S12B.

Group 2-3 saw an intense battle begin with the Bajan Starlet Team 3W’s Krazy Kustoms / Catch / PROPAC (Wood/Staffner and White/Cozier) trying to hold onto Jamaican Bobby Marshall who was clearly setting the pace, putting down the fastest stage times of the group in 5 stages out of the 7 run on Saturday. Although Roger Mckenzie (Evo Signs Toyota RunX) did his level best to keep pace, TnT simply could not manage a top finish in this group all weekend.

Sunday saw the teams head back to the Southland to do 6 stages comprising of slightly shorter but more technical versions of Bronte and Cedar Hill. If the sun was hot on Saturday then it was turned up to scorching temperature on Sunday with many teams downing many bottles of Dasani water while trying to cope with the draining conditions. Powell once again came out flying but Higgins/Grist who spent all of Saturday dialing in their Shell Ultra Helix Evo IX finally managed to match pace with Powell, trading seconds from the get go. Higgins actually bettered Powell on the first stage by a second. Powell certainly made use of his 53 second lead from Saturday, although still in all out attack mode there was a slight ere of caution which was probably the right decision as he had all but locked up 1^st place at this point. Higgins however was certainly not going to settle for second place and spectators were treated to the UK duo driving the Shell Helix Ultra Grp N Evo IX to its absolute fullest potential. Lochan/Dumas sat a bit in limbo on Sunday morning with 1^st in group and 3^rd overall almost guaranteed. Although Armstrong pulled within 16 seconds of Lochan on the Sunday stages, there were simply not enough stages left to even attempt to offset Lochan’s lead from Saturday. Ian Warren continued his blistering pace topping 2WD for the opening stages when an error in judgment caused an off that would force the Suzki team to retire rather than claim top 2WD. This honour was now handed to Mark Hamilton who drove well all weekend and was as he put it ‘having one of the best weekends of rallying ever’. The Escort was in fine form all weekend and a 1^st place in 2WD and 5^th place overall was probably a very fitting reward for the team’s efforts.

The situation in 2-4 was an interesting one with Fawaz Mohammed having an off on the opening stage giving Rezan a comfortable lead with not many stages left to go. Rezan however may have backed off a bit too much as Fawaz, Darrel, and Ansel were all setting solid times. In the end though consistency proved to be what was required and although Rezan was not the fastest through Sunday’s stages he was certainly the most focused. He would go on to win 2-4 followed by Fawaz in 2^nd and Ansel rounding out 3^rd place.

2-3 had a few surprises on Sunday with Jamaican Ricky Bobby once again taking the top times in group for a few stages. A few slower times however would make the difference however with Ryan Wood hanging in there to clinch 1^st in Group followed by Marshall in 2^nd and Stuart White in 3^rd. Interestingly enough the top 3 in this group were all within 90 second window. Although the RWD starlets looked to be having a time with the rolling gravel stages, they were obviously just as fast as they were fun to watch.

By the time the teams got to the super special tarmac Mayor’s Cup, with just a check in required to complete the Rally, the thoughts on everyone’s minds were simply to put on a show. Although the Mayor’s Cup was a timed event, Rally Trinidad was formally over and John ‘Penti’ Powell had sent a very clear message to the rest of the region’s WRC contingent. The Mayor’s Cup was a 1.9km stage taking competitors through a few 90 degree bends and a 360 that was to be the focus of attention for the 3,000 odd crowd in attendance. The Mayor’s Cup Group winners Neil Armstrong (A), Mark Hamilton (3-2), Fawaz Mohammed (2-4), and Zak Waddel (2-3) had all set very quick times all around the 1:50 mark, then came the last minute entrant of Mark Higgins who borrowed Powell’s mighty Subaru for 2 runs. Needless to say he absolutely shattered the field with a time of 1:34 on his first pass and backed it up with a winning time of 1:33. This will surely be a record that will be in place for quite some time to come. Ryan ‘Woody’ Wood demonstrated what ‘doing the dog’ looks like in a rally car, even taking his dount skills to the middle of the chicane. He would take away best crowd response.

So the curtain has closed on what will be regarded as the most successful Rally Trinidad ever. The bar has been set for the TTRC to try to surpass in 2011, and it is clear that the Caribbean region now has another major rally to look forward to.