THE pair of Kyle Gregg and Marcia Dawes were the winners of the first and only rally of 2022, Drivers Rallysport Club (DRC) December Rally Reboot, which took place on Saturday, December 10, in Bog Walk, St Catherine.

“It definitely took a toll,” Gregg told the Jamaica Observer‘s weekly Auto magazine.

His first rally in nearly two years, Gregg spun on the first corner as he was the first to experience the conditions of the New Works stage.

“It was all downhill from there. I ran off twice, spun out again and I was like, oh my gosh, we couldn’t find any traction,” he said.

This left the lead open to the Subaru Impreza WRX STI of Joel Jackson, whose challenge faded on stage two when a shifting error rendered his car useless. By this time, Gregg had shook off the early morning blues and charged his way back to the lead, but not without a few more hiccups. By the lunch break, his Lancer Evolution was looking a bit worse for wear. The pair eventually found their pace and claimed overall victory at the end of the day.

Replacing Jackson in the chase for the lead was Demar Lee. The youngster has been making waves in the rallysport community for a bit now, but his maiden rally win was not to be this one. He finished second, ahead of rally veteran Leslie Madden Jr.

For the DRC, the event was a bit on the unusual side as compared to the normal large end-of-year rally that would have capped a season’s championship. Dawes explained that the rally teams were desperate to have an event given the cancellation of the rally scheduled for October due to Hurricane Ian.

“The dates were taken from what was originally tabled for the staging of Rally Jamaica, which we decided not to have this year,” she said.

The smaller event was devised to satiate the request of the rally teams and assist in getting several first-time entrants some seat time.

“Saturday was considered with the idea that we’d have prize giving on Sunday and persons also had a day of rest before going back to work on Monday,” Dawes added.

While not completely happy with the scale of December Rally Reboot, Dawes said the DRC did receive promising response from those who did make the trek to Bog Walk to watch, as they were just happy to see rallying happening even if the number of competitors was not as high as in previous events. She believes it will take some commitment on the part of teams next year as well as in the other aspects of rallysport like planning, management, and volunteering to return the sport to its former levels.