Compliments of the Barbados Advocate
Web Posted - Wed May 25 2005
By Corey Greaves
MARK HAMILTON capped off an impressive performance by driving off with the overall victory at the Vaucluse Interantional RallySprint on Sunday.
At the helm of his McEnearney Quality Inc/Consolidated Finance/Automotive Art Ford Escort Mk II, Hamilton also set a personal best time of two minutes 10.72 seconds.
This time came in the Handicap final against Tristan Gibbs, who was in his first outing in the ex-Freddie Gale Toyota Starlet Turbo.
After the day's action, Hamilton said he was very pleased to have captured the overall victory.

The skilled driver was humble about his victory: In motor sports one has to have a certain degree of luck and some of the other drivers had unfortunate incidents while the old Ford worked well.
However, at the start of the day he did not think it would have gone so far.
During the day Hamilton said his priority was to win his group and the times were not relevant, but crossing the finish line before the other person.
I had Andrew Jones and three other European entries and I won by a little bit.
The track also helped as well and Hamilton said the track held up fantastic over the weekend and the organisers did a great job.
Hamilton has been driving for over 15 years and said his first competition car was loaned to him by Andy Philip, who also supported him and is his mentor.
However, after such an outstanding performance in the RallySprint he will be looking on from the sidelines during Rally Barbados.
The decision made was that there had (been) a lot of European entries and friends from Jamaica to look after so I have taken on the role of hospitality manager.
To reach the final the impressive young Gibbs defeated James Betts, then Sean Gill in the semi finals. Gill had in turn defeated Edward Corbin in the quarter-final.
Hamilton had beaten Simon Gillmore and Jonathan Still, while Trevor Manning suffered a throttle body failure in his run against Still, so he could not take on the BMW.
Production 1, 2 & 3 merged, was won in fine style by Tristan Gibbs, who first defeated Graham Gittens in a similar car. Tristan Gibbs then defeated his brother Sean Gibbs who was driving a Datsun 120Y.
This weekend saw the debut of the new Suzuki Ignis Sport in the hands of Neil Barnard, who finished third in the group, after Gittens crashed out of the run-off, seriously damaging the Starlet, although uninjured himself.
The RallySprint Cup leader James Betts emerged victorious in Modified 5.
Betts first defeated Wayne Manning, then Brett Clarke. Kenny Hall was beaten by Clarke in an extremely close finish, but went on to defeat Manning in the run-off for third place. Gill was made to work for his victory in Modified 6, holding off the determined Kirk Watkins by a narrow margin in his heat, then keeping England s Paul McMullen at bay in the final of the group.
Watkins, the only driver to have contested every VRW RallySprint, defeated Ollivierre in the third-place run-off. In Modified 7, with less than two seconds covering the fastest three cars, close racing was guaranteed, and it was delivered. Edward Corbin drove his way to victory against Greg Cozier, then Roger Marshall.
SuperModified 9 & 10 produced another fine display from a VRW novice in a battle of Toyota Starlets, Josh Read defeated Karl Waterman in his heat, but was unable to defeat the experienced Simon Gillmore in the final.
Gillmore had defeated Matthew Staffner in his heat, the Toyota Corolla driver also losing to Waterman in the third-place run-off.
With a trio of Mark II Ford Escorts, SuperModified 11 was another guaranteed crowd-pleaser, Mark Hamilton winning the final from Welshman Gary Thomas, who had earlier defeated his fellow countryman Rupert Lomax.
Jonathan Still and England s Martin Stockdale faced one another in their BMW M3s in the SuperModified 12 final, Stockdale having earlier beaten his team-mate Hugh Peat (Ford Escort RS Cosworth).
The local man came out the winner, but by a very narrow margin after he had missed a gear at the start giving up a few precious seconds.
By the time the Modified 8 run-offs were due to start, the spectator areas were packed, and alive with anticipation. First to go were Manning and Roger Hill, the race a lot closer than many had anticipated. In the process of beating Hill, Manning regained his lap record, shaving nearly a full second off Bourne s mark from earlier in the day, the record now 2:01.88.
Manning went on to defeat Kevin Procter in the final, in which the Englishman set a personal best of 2:04.08, which was also good enough for the best overseas time of the day, repeating his feat (albeit around 10 seconds faster) of the International RallySprint two years before.
Hill, too, established a personal best time, at an impressive 2:03.99, in the process of defeating Harold Morley in the third-place run-off.
The end-of-day prize-giving was well-attended, the winners receiving champagne from Axis Inc, plaques from D Blades Trophies Ltd and rally DVDs of Irish producer Plum Tyndall s visits to Barbados.
The Vaucluse Raceway International RallySprint was organised by the Vaucluse Raceway Motorsport Club and supported by Axis Inc, the Simpson Motors Rally Team and D Blades Trophies Ltd.
International RallySprint Results
Key to nationalities (competitor from Barbados unless shown): WAL Wales
Banks Pig n Likka Driver of the Day: Gary Thomas WAL and Rupert Lomax WAL
Best time of the day Trevor Manning, 2m 01.88s (new lap record)
Best overseas time of the day Kevin Procter, 2m 04.08s
Group results
Production 1, 2 & 3 merged: 1st Tristan Gibbs (P3 Toyota Starlet Turbo)
Modified 5: 1st James Betts (Champion Auto/KG Enterprises/Venture Marble/Hankook/Bridgestone/L & N Workshop/Kendall Sporting Opel Corsa GSi); Modified 6: 1st Sean Gill (Shell Helix/Courts/Automotive Art/Kerridge/Simpson Motors Suzuki Ignis JWRC);
Modified 7: 1st Edward Corbin (Automotive Art/Kumho Toyota Corolla SR);
SuperModified 9 & 10 merged: 1st Simon Gillmore (S10 Halton Graphics/DHL World Wide Express/SRG Engineering/Toyo Tyres Peugeot 205);
SuperModified 11: 1st Mark Hamilton (McEnearney Quality Inc/Consolidated Finance/Automotive Art Ford Escort Mk II);
SuperModified 12: 1st Jonathan Still (Hitachi Power Tools/Philips Lighting/Warrens Motors/Crane & Equipment/VP Racing BMW M3);
Modified 8: 1st Trevor Manning (Shell Helix/Courts/Automotive Art/Kerridge/Simpson Motors/Garbage Master Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII);

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