Panton third at Rally Barbados

Jamaica’s Jeffrey Panton, along with co-driver Mike Fennell Jr, had to settle for a third-place finish at the two-day Sol Rally Barbados on Sunday.

Panton, who held a 20-second lead heading into the final three stages on Sunday, had difficulty after snapping the left rear axle on his Ford Fiesta WRC car after going over a crest.

With the car forcibly performing with the front-wheel-drive only, Panton could not hold on to the lead and was eventually overtaken by American Ken Block and his co-driver Alex Gelsomino, who went on to win the rally in their Ford Fiesta Rally2 car in a time of 56:03.19 minutes.

Panton, who crashed in Barbados last year, finished 35.6 seconds shy of the win.

Britain’s Robert Swann and co-driver Darren Garrod, who held the overnight lead after Saturday’s rain-drenched nine stages, finished in second position 9.5 seconds back in their Ford Fiesta WRC after sliding off the road in Sunday’s slick conditions.

COSTLY WEATHER

For Panton, the wet conditions, with a lack of seat time, cost him in his bid to secure his fifth Rally Barbados title.

“Coming home with a third-place finish is negative, and it’s quite disheartening,” he said. “The whole team is extremely gutted by this, but unfortunately, that is what motorsport is.

“However, I feel somewhat vindicated that I haven’t lost the speed that I had because we found it back on Sunday morning and surprised them with the times we were putting down. I could tell in my driving and how the car was reacting that we were really pushing hard, so that is one positive out of it.”

Block, who was securing his debut Rally Barbados title, said he was overjoyed at beating his WRC rivals.

“Coming down here and having to race three WRC cars in a car I’ve never raced before, I thought was a really big challenge,” Block said after the final stage.

“But we were just getting quicker and quicker over the weekend. They had some issues, and it was a really challenging rally, so we just did our work, and it kept paying off.”