Leslie Alleyne and Chris O’Neal are back in the winners’ circle.
The dynamic duo won last Sunday’s All Terrain/Rock Oil MudDogs April Safari, the second round of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) 2024 Chefette MudDogs Safari Championship.
It was the fourth time they have won the Audley Croney Memorial Trophy, following victories in 2017 2019 and 2023.
The trophy is awarded each April in honour of a long-standing member of the BRC and an enthusiastic and skillful competitor in navigational events.
Campaigning their POD Store/Maxxis/Lucky Locks Suzuki Jimny, the experienced multiple champions won by a margin of just 18 penalty points.
They faced stiff competition from the Realtors Ltd/Serenity Pest Control Jeep Wrangler of Simon Parravicino and navigator Andrew Croney, who finished second.
With son Jeremy, Croney played a part in the closest-ever result in the MudDogs championship, when they lost the 2013 Chefette April Safari by just one point to Mark Western and Robin Hinds.
George Mendes and Leslie Evanson in the G&G Sales and Service Suzuki Vitara placed third and also won Class B, while fourth overall and second in Class B went to the mother and son crew of Robyn and Charles Clarkein their Mitsubishi Pajero.
In a rare result for the BRC’s navigational championship, all of the crews entered were classified as finishers after they completed the 100-kilometre route set by Abdullah and Bilal Patel.
Alleyne was full of praise for the route.
“I have nothing but praise for the route setters. This rally represents the stereotype for rallies that we should set for the foreseeable future as it was enjoyable, not overly complicated, and encouraged a 100 per cent finish rate with a tight scoring spread.
“It was definitely the type of event that would encourage newcomers and stimulate growth in the sport. Knowing that the scoring was going to come down to fine margins, the Driver Challenge became even more competitive, which meant we had to be clean and quick at the same time. I was pleasantly surprised to see that we came out on top, and managed to finish the first route with zero penalties,” Alleyne said.
MudDogs Chairman Ricky Holder said: “I am pleased that everyone made it to the finish and that everyone said it was a great rally. I must say a big thank you to our sponsor All Terrain and I hope to see them on board again with a MudDogs event.”
The first crew set out on Route 1 from the Codrington Hill, St Michael premises of sponsor All Terrain Enterprises at 2 p.m. The Driver Challenge ran at 5:30 p.m. near the Armag Vegetable Depot in St Philip.
Route 2 carried the crews back to the finish at All Terrain Enterprises at around 11 p.m.
(PR/RB)
