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Linton brothers led WRC Rally Finland
8/4/2009
Barbados brothers Adrian and Jonathan Linton can say that they led a World Rally Championship event.
Albeit briefly the Linton brothers were at the top of the standings on the opening day of last weekend’s Neste Oil Rally Finland, round nine of the 2009 World Rally Championship.
They also finished the event, 52nd overall out of the 61 classified finishers, and eighth in their class. World-famous names, including Formula 1 driver Kimi Raikkonen and 2003 World Rally Champion Petter Solberg failed to finish the event, emphasising the noteworthy achievement of the small family team from the Caribbean.
Competing in the Opel Astra OPC, in which they had twice previously contested Britain’s WRC round, Wales Rally GB, they were first off the line last Thursday night, as the rally’s first stage, a SuperSpecial, was run in reverse seeding order.
As the Lintons were given start number 123, 89th of the 90 starters, they lined up first, alongside the Toyota Yaris of local crew Juhani Lansikorpi and Pasi Haataja. They comprehensively beat the locals, faster by 26 seconds, so their time of One minute 50.7 secs (1:50.7) placed them at the head of the leader board, even though it was only for a few brief minutes as they slipped to 57th by the end of the night.
Afterwards, Adrian said, “yesterday (Sunday) was possibly the most incredible day in the annals of the Kickastra Rally Team. A Bajan team was first off the line in a World Rally Championship event, and by virtue of winning our match-up, we actually led the Neste Oil Rally Finland overall, even if only for a short time!”
They made steady progress up the leader board, lying 69th at the end of day one, then 62nd at the end of day two, before the final stages of Sunday caught out more of their competitors, helping them to an overall finish just outside the top 50, a remarkable achievement. Adrian travelled with wife Jackie and son Dominic, while Jonathan and wife Alecia, who are based in Europe, made up the family team.
The Killeri SuperSpecial on Thursday night was the first of 23 stages, the last of which was lunchtime on Sunday. By then, the Lintons’ overall elapsed time was four hours 02 minutes 51.2 seconds, nearly four times that of Rally Barbados, and they had contested no fewer than 345.15 kilometres of stages, around 212 miles, with a further 1 100 kms of transit distance.
Exhausted after their gruelling ordeal, Adrian said: “Well, we finished with almost no problems! We have to pack up and leave shortly, but will put the whole story up on our web site, www.kickastra.com. There are many people to thank, but we quickly want to thank sponsors Ravensden and Gales Hatcheries, the Kickastra Rally Team, Tobias, Danny and Thomas from AutoScharf in Germany for their outstanding technical support and service, our great friend and local organiser beyond compare Jouni, Colwyn for coming all the way from New York to join us, Steven Lovell from BHP Motorsport and a special mention for all the supporters back in Barbados who sent messages, pledged their support and followed our progress. It has been the most amazing experience”.
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