On Sunday September 19th the Jamaica Motoring Club held the third in it's series of Stages Rallies for 1999. The event was organized by the Montego Bay Motoring Club.

The rally was a Gravel pace note event, using 2 stage locations. The stages were to be used more than once, and both were run in the reverse direction. A total of 10 stages would be used to the event, which was located entirely in Frome.

There were three teams competing from Kingston. The first was the team of Jeffrey Panton and John deMercado, in an ex-TTE ST205 Celica, the second was the team of Gary Gregg and Hugh Hutchinson, in an ex-TTE ST165 Celica and the third was John Ralston and Stephen Gunter, in John's Mazda 323 GTR.

The stages were obviously well chosen by the organizers, offering both short & twisty as well as long & fast sections. The event itself was well run, and the organizers must be commended.

The event started well for John and Stephen, with the second fastest time on SS1. SS2 was over 15 miles long, and with the exception of one corner which saw them entering backward because of a loose surface, was uneventful. No times were available at the stage stop, because of a communications problem, but John felt that time was lost because to the small spin on the stage.

SS3 was a repeat of SS1, and saw John and Stephen co-winners of the stage, in a tie with Jeffery Panton/John deMercado. SS4 was a repeat of SS2, and John was determind to improve the teams previous time. The team was doing very well, until the same corner saw them slide off the course. The car was stuck on a berm, and could not get out under it's own power, and, with no spectators to help, the team decided to call it quits. With absolutely no damage to the car, they were out of the rally. It was later found out that John and Stephen were in third place overall at the time, 8 seconds behind Jeffery Panton, and a further 10 seconds behind eventual rally winner Doug Gore.

Although they were disappointed to be out of the rally, John and Stephen were elated with their performance to that point, and look forward to the next gravel rally in October.

John and Stephen would like to thank their sponsors Shell and Super Clubs for their support.

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