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THREE TIMES AS NICE! Sol Rally Barbados 2017 champions Jeffrey Panton (left) and co-driver Michael Fennell Jnr (right) along with General Manager Sol (Barbados) Limited, Ezra Prescod, posing proudly with their awards at the official awards ceremony yesterday.

Hat trick for Jamaica’s Panton and Fennell

Team crowned champions of Sol Rally Barbados 2017

It’s official Jamaica’s Jeffrey Panton and Michael Fennell Jr are the champions of Sol Rally Barbados 2017.

Yesterday at the Boatyard, the pair carried off the coveted title which they have now won for three consecutive years.

But things could have ended differently when he had a scary moment three stages from the end.

“It was a very stupid mistake, we over cooked it coming into the first corner. The real reason for doing it was the amount of crowd that was there and we pushed way too hard and we didn’t need to,” stated Panton.

“In doing so the car carried so much momentum that it went up in the mud and the grass and it was on all four tyres and in the next turn which was immediately afterwards it just took off and slapped the wall.”

The car had what looked like a heavy impact and stalled but despite that he only dropped about 12 seconds and remained in the lead by over a minute.

“We didn’t know what was wrong on the outside and that the tailgate was off until the end. I kept hearing the exhaust and I thought something was wrong but it was the tailgate.”

The healthy lead may have helped him save some time, “We knew we didn’t need to rush and do anything stupid (when we had hit and stalled) so we took our time, started the car, reversed and then moved off.”

His total elapsed time in the Rubis/Sandals Barbados/KIG Ford Focus WRC06 was one hour 10mins 26.41secs.

Second went to Rob Swann and Darren Garrod from England who were a further minute and 15 seconds behind Panton’s time.

Rounding off the top three and making it an all overseas podium was England’s Roger Duckworth who managed to just move ahead of Kevin Procter who had started the day in third.

Procter finished fourth, while the highest local crew went to Roger “The Sheriff” Skeete.

Skeete mentioned that they were down on performance on the first two days and found it was a leak in the boost hose which they managed to rectify for Sunday.

Barbados’ Roger Hill was sixth and the fastest two wheel drive and winner of Super Modified 2 was Barry Mayers.

Mayers was battling with Hill overall, but a slow get away from the start in the last stage may have just allowed Hill to get away.

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