By RORY DALEY

The National Motorsports season kicked in earnest with the 2010 Dexterity Championship last Sunday. While it has been dropped from counting towards the Rallysport Championship, the highest Motorsport accolade, there has been a revival of its core essence. No points, means the professionals twho used to swap the series grids are mere history, leaving only the hardcore and fresh faces that are now able to rise to the top. That’s exactly what happened at the opening round, held at the Advanced Driver Training Centre in Portmore.

Held in the shadow of the tragic passing of Carlo Bennett, one of Motorsports own, the crowd turned out to witness a tight battle on what looked to be an even tighter course layout. However, the balance was such that even the normally dominant rear-wheel drive cars couldn’t run away with it. The best-placed RWD car was the Toyota Starlet of Ricky Vaz. Sacrificing bodywork, he could only manage fifth on the double-dip championship run.

The rest of the combatants were front-wheel driven as Khamisi McCain took his Starlet to fourth place. Third was the surprise performance on the day, as series irregular Sean Meggooe stepped clearly into the limelight running toe-to-toe with the big names ahead of him on the leaderboard. Sean was one of the only four drivers to turn in a sub-minute lap in his Suzuki Baleno. He proved the drive was no fluke, as he claimed third overall even after his time penalty was added for clipping a cone. It was a hattrick of sorts with third place in the championship laps, third in his class, and the third fastest time for the day.

The relevance of the feat became more obvious given that he had managed to interject himself into the tussle between seasoned veterans Christopher McFarlane and Dion Gardner. Gardner had the upper hand time-wise, but it was McFarlane’s antics that kept the fervour going as the results clicked up on the timing board. The men traded milliseconds all day down to the final lap. In the end, it was Gardner holding the top trophy, victory for his Toyota Starlet over McFarlane’s Peugeot 307 wagon.