Year 1997

In year 1997 Jim Anderson’s Honda Prelude was first American team to compete in Texaco all-stage international rally. This event was the first round of the Tecmarine Caribbean Rally Championship. Teams from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Guadaloupe, the U.K., and the JPIII RS Team from the U.S. competed in this event. 30 stages covering over 250 miles with 115 of them being flat-out Special Stages made up the event held all over the 14-mile long by 7 mile wide island over 2 days.

Sunday started fairly early (about 9:00am) and Jim and Charley were definitely hoping to make up for some of the earlier time lost. However, Bajan rallying proved that to be very difficult. With short stages, narrow roads with tight hairpins meant the cars with lower weights were at a tremendous advantage. After all, horsepower does not get you through the turns; grip and ability to use it is the key. The weight of the Prelude at ~2950 lbs. put it at a huge disadvantage. Undeterred, Jim pressed on and picked up the pace, turning up the heat on the 205 GTI 16 throughout the day through the next 10 stages trading stage times. But on stage 23, as the sun went down, a drive shaft broke on the Peugeot, and Fields had to limp to the finish. At the time, Jim had no idea this had happened and continued to attack. The final 7 stages went well for the team, run in the dark. In the end they went on to pick up 5 more overall places and finished 29th overall and first in Group 1, Class 5.