On Sunday September 5th the Jamaica Motoring Club held the third in it's series of Sprints for 1999. The event was organized by the Montego Bay Motoring Club, and held at Lydford Mines, part of an old Bauxite Mine. John Ralston represented Gunter Automotive, and was also defending his 1998 win of the same event.

Also competing at the sprint were: Jeffery Panton, Celica ST205; Gary Gregg, Celica ST165; Haresh Ramchandani, Lancer EVO IV; Richie Rerrie, Colt EVO; David Summerbell jr, Lancer EVO II; Clinton McGann, Mazda 323 to name a few. It was obvious that competition would be close and teh times throughout the day was testimony to that fact. After the end of the 2 lap runs, the times were as follows:

Panton      2:09:19
Gregg       2:11:08
Rerrie      2:11:21
Ramchandani 2:11:35
Ralston     2:11:44  

Clearly the cometition was close, but John was determind to give a good account for himself in defending his winning form last year. In the 3 lap championship run he did just that, finishing a fine 2nd place to Jeffery Panton, just beating Gary Gregg into 3rd place.

Daid Lindo, writing for the Auto Report, as well as the Auto & Truck Trader had this to report:

"Not taking anything from Panton's impressive run and total dominance of the Lydford sprint (though some may say that Douglas Gore was not present to "test" him!), the driver who nevertheless provided the excitement of the sprint was no other than the Championship Run second placed competitor John "Big John" Ralston, who was quite impressive in a car who many thought whose days are over.
With a combination of correct tuning and proper driveline sorting, Ralston's GTR has become quite competitive, (note second-placed Gregg's time of 2:11.08 to Ralston's fifth of 2:11.44) and "Big John's" exciting, entertaining and aggressive driving style in a car that is certainly not easy to drive smooth and fast, belies the high standard of skill that is present in one of the most understated and under rated JMC drivers present. Although those present respected Panton's finesse, they certainly enjoyed it when Ralston was on the track!"

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