Rally Jamaica 2015: Gravel-abuse this weekend!

Author : cmunroe

I honored my promise and passed through Scrutineering to confirm if everything that was being said elsewhere was attired in factual garments. I am pleased, elated actually, to report that I have seen and accepted that if what my four eyes captured, unfolds, gravel will require a lawyer of the shape and form of a QC,  to seek redress for the abuse it will suffer this weekend!

The majority of Rally Jamaica’s stages will rip through Tru Juice’s orchard in Bog Walk and the grand finale will reveal itself on Sunday, at a spectator’s delight – the waterfront, Downtown Kingston!

Rallysport fans have waited all year for this, the most significant event on the rallysport calendar and based on the machines that I saw at Scrutineering and the list of competitors I have read, it would appear as if the organisers have rolled all the Black Friday, Thanksgiving and Christmas treats into one scrumptious,salivating-inducing buffet!

Jamaica has always been the home of notoriously fast machines in any motorsport discipline. The ‘rock’ never ceases to amaze, in terms of what we can achieve and accomplish with depleted resources. But, obese skills we retain in abundance and as such, Mt Everest, to us, is a staircase! I have said that to say this – even when the world comes knocking and launches a challenge, we have an arsenal at the ready to defend pride and honor.

This weekend our rallysport ‘big guns’ will take center stage and deliver that which we have come to adore them for. Jeffery Panton has been there and done that and he will be asked, urged, encouraged and motivated by his loyal, never-yielding fans to display what makes him, like ATL, unbeatable, when he is one with his machine.

He was introduced to the Ford Focus way of life by Gary ‘The Colonel’ Gregg and he has not looked back since! The Colonel has decided to separate himself from the cobwebs and he will be slinging gravel and possibly mud this weekend!

Ford Focus

Do you remember when Evos and Scoobies ruled the rally scene? Well, a trip to Knutsford Court today served as a reminder that a lot has changed in recent years and the face of rallysport continues to change. Ford Focus/Fiesta machines, for reasons competitors will possibly explain, are now the popular beasts to wrestle to victory. They were visible, sitting rather proud and brandishing an invincible glow in the parking lot.

We will not be intimidated though and despite the fact that warriors are here from Trinidad, Costa Rico, Mexico, Ireland, Barbados and the USA, aided and abetted by the 2 times European Rally Champion- Simon Jean Joseph – we aint scared! They will all be introduced to Capelton’s version of Flames and Fire by members of our local, highly talented contingent including – Joel ‘Shifter Kart’ Jackson, Doug ‘Hollywood’ Gore, Leslie Madden, Jordan Powell, Maurice Whittingham, Bobby Marshall and Thomas Hall. Apparently I was compiling a list of ‘Big Drivers!

We will be well represented and when the dust settles in the orchard and the final Jeffery Panton-initiated 360 celebratory turn has ceased and we are allowed to reset our bearings – rotating eyeballs trying desperately to keep pace with the rapidly revolving Ford Focus WRC – John ‘Penti’ Powell and our other humbled, but gracious guests, will be scratching their heads and wondering out aloud, in their preferred language – how the hell did Jeffery Panton beat us?

Here is another reason to celebrate – Guess who will be slaughtering gravel this weekend? Richard ‘Sir Rich’ Rerrie. This event should be titled – Rally Jamaica 2015 – A Must Watch Event!

Cecil Munroe Gleaner On-Line Writer

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