THE team of Kyle Gregg and Marcia Dawes took victory at the first Drivers’ Rallysport Club (DRC) rally for the year. Dubbed the Rally of the Kings, it took place in Bog Walk, St Catherine, on September 29.

“The event was fun. We were missing a few competitors, but still had a hard rally,” Gregg told the Jamaica Observer’s weekly Auto magazine.

Gregg’s Lancer Evolution IX lost brakes during the second stage of the rally. This led to a few scary moments and a serious loss in time that had to be made up against a very fast Lee Vaz, who was debuting his Subaru Impreza STI. As a result the pair pushed hard to the very last stage. At the end of the day they managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by winning six of the eight stages.

“We had to drive with maximum attack after we lost brakes, to try and seal the win,” said Gregg.

For Vaz, this was his first outing in his new rally car.

“It was more of a test for us, as I just got the car, but it’s much faster than the older one,” he said.

Like Gregg, Vaz said he was looking forward to Rally Jamaica 2019, which is normally scheduled for the end of November or early December.

“The lack of events this year hasn’t hampered us as most of us went to Trinidad at the start of the year. We’ve been doing our own little test sessions,” said Gregg.

He added that Rally Jamaica should be very interesting as there are eight cars in the mix that could potentially win the event.

“I think we just need to spread the hype around Rally Jamaica to the over events to keep local rallying alive,” he said.

Derrick McDowell, another driver trying to get to grips with his car — a BMW 318Ti, was third, taking his time through the ever-changing conditions.