LINTON BROTHERS COMPLETE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALE

Barbados rally crew Adrian and Jonathan Linton were elated on Sunday night (December 3) to reach the finish ramp of the gruelling Wales Rally GB, final round of the World Rally Championship. More than once, it had seemed that the first all-Bajan crew ever to enter a round of the WRC would be forced to retire from the three-day event, but sheer determination - and a little bit of luck - drove them on to complete one of the world's toughest rallies and cross the finish ramp in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Their Opel Astra OPC was sponsored by British company Ravensden and Carib beer (through British importer Global Brands) and the trip was supported by the Barbados Tourism Authority; it was a real family effort, with the crew's father Denis, wives Jackie and Alecia and UK-based Bajan mechanic Damien Yearwood all making a contribution to the result.

Barbados Rally Club (BRC) chairman Mark Hamilton said: "I just want to say well done to the whole team . . . even to think about doing an event such as Wales Rally GB takes a bit of courage, but to finish against all the odds is a magnificent achievement, and shows just how far motor sport has moved on in the island in the near 50-year history of the BRC."

Even before facing the 17 special stages, totalling around 250 miles, the team had faced some challenges. Jonathan had sourced and prepared the car in Germany, where he is currently working, so Adrian's first task was to get used to left-hand drive. There was chance to do this on the pre-event recce, after which there was a rush to apply the sponsors' livery to the car in time for the Ceremonial Start in Cardiff on Thursday evening.

Friday started reasonably well, although the stages at Port Talbot (formerly Margam), Resolven and Rheola were very slippery; of the 111 official starters, more than 100 were seeded ahead of the Lintons, so ruts in the stage surface caused additional problems for the lower numbers.

Towards the end of the day, the Astra developed an overheating problem, which delayed the Lintons on their way back to Parc Ferme, attracting a penalty. Adrian said: "The temperature guage went off the clock, so we stopped and put some water in, after which it seemed alright. We were later into Parc Ferme then we needed to be, though, as we thought that the power washer was part of the route, so wasted a little more time there." At the end of Leg 1, they were placed 105th.

For the early part of Saturday, things went quite smoothly, although some intermittent rainstorms meant that the stages at Crychan, Eppynt and Halfway were unpredictable... and getting increasingly rutted. For smaller cars, those ruts cause big problems, and the Astra broke its back axle late in the day. After many hours of work, including searching for any similar car in the Service Park at Swansea from which a part could be sourced, it looked as though their valiant effort was over... until one of the marshals arrived to say he knew the local dealer.

Adrian said: "We had a nightmare. After breaking the axle, we managed to almost totally repair it, but were short of a cv joint. We tried everything, then this marshal dragged a guy out of a local nightclub in the early hours of the morning to open up the dealership and get a new one out. We only just made it to the first stage of Sunday in time!"

Sadly, the broken axle meant that the Lintons were unable to take part in Wales Rally GB's showpiece event, the indoor stage at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday evening. They did make it to the striking building in the centre of Cardiff on Sunday, however, despite further overheating dramas during the stages at Brechfa and Trawscoed - while 29 cars retired, the Lintons' Astra was 81st of the 82 classified finishers, and the brothers were called out of the car to be interviewed on the finish ramp for broadcast on the event's dedicated radio station, Wales Rally FM.

Afterwards, Adrian said: "For a while, it didn't look as though we'd make it, but we did. The support has been fantastic, we've seen a lot of Bajan flags around, and met all sorts of people who came up to offer support. We have all had a fantastic time."

For the record, the Lintons' total elapsed time was 5h 38m 09.7s - they finished 2h 17m 44.9s behind event winners Marcus Gronholm and Timo Rautiainen in the BP Ford World Rally Team Focus RS WRC 06, but it was finishing that was the target, and all six members of Team KickAstra should be rightly proud that they achieved it in what was essentially a road car fitted with a roll cage.