LOOSE STAGES RALLY POSTPONED

The start of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) loose season, slated for this Sunday, July 25, has been postponed. A combination of the recent bad weather and the amount of repair work necessary to prepare the courses for competition has forced the 11th-hour decision.
A new date for this event will be announced once agreement has been reached between the BRC and the Barbados Motoring Federation, which controls the island’s motor sport calendar.
BRC competition secretary Barry Gale explained: “Over the past four or five years, our gravel events have steadily declined in quality to the point that they have become a lot less popular with our members. The condition of many of the roads we traditionally use is currently so bad that preparing them to a reasonable standard requires a lot of effort.
“Thanks to a very encouraging response from a few of our members, who have access to both the equipment and the marl we would need, we had put plans in motion to repair two courses - Yorkshire and Black Bess - for this weekend.
“But the problem now remains the uncooperative weather - two tropical waves have pretty much stopped us in our tracks. While we could still have run the two courses in some fashion, I felt that the conditions would not be enjoyable to all those who might like to enter.”
But this looks set to be only a short-term disappointment. The BRC is putting plans in motion to rekindle interest in gravel rallying, something close to the heart of current island pace-setter Paul Bourne. Gale noted: “We are going to produce better loose events for our competitors over the course of this year and into early next year. With the support we have been promised, Paul, Jonathan Still and I are confident that we can create several good courses over the next six months to a year, to get drivers keen on gravel rallying once more.”
Gale concluded: “I must apologise to everyone for the late notice, but we were trying our best to see if we could still hold the event - in the end it appeared that the best solution was to postpone it until the courses could be better prepared.”

For further information, robin@bradfax.com