IT was a bittersweet event for relatives participating in the Raynor King Memorial Rally held at Lydford, St Ann last Sunday.

Montego Bay-based driver Richard Rerrie, who said he is a cousin, drove to victory in his Subaru Impreza.

But for Daryl King, after whose father the rally was named, it was another disappointment after trying to secure victory at the event for several years now.

“It is the worst feeling ever,” King told the Jamaica Observer.

King’s problems started early in the day when there was a hiccup in transporting his Honda Civic to the event.

“The wrecker broke down and the car had to be placed on another one. Eventually, I had to meet it halfway and drive it to the rally to avoid being late.”

From there, things went from bad to worse.

“At the first corner, the car started to missfire. At first I thought it was the spark plugs, but when we looked at it further, a screw had come loose in the distributor. Everything we tried didn’t work.”

King’s car continued to lose power until he was advised to retire lest the engine suffer major damage.

That left Rerrie, the rally favourite, to uphold the family honour. However, it was not smooth sailing to victory.

Despite a fast start, at lunch he was only third after an unusual error by navigator Winston Dawson.

“Winston clocked us into time control three minutes early, giving us a 60-second penalty,” Rerrie explained.

This put him down 24 seconds from the lead, which was then held by Macklin Peterkin. At the stage after lunch, Rerrie proved why he is a fan favourite and retook the lead with a 46-second advantage over his rival.

“It was wonderful to win. We had a gearbox scare, but during the break it looked fine and I pushed on,” Rerrie told Auto.

Peterkin’s second place fell to third when he experienced problems.

“My kill switch broke off, causing the car to stall,” he said.

Second went to Matthew Gore.

“I’m sorry about Daryl’s early exit. I was looking forward to the competition,” Gore said.

Thomas Hall and Peter Jaggon rounded out the top five finishers.