News

Nearly 50 cars are entered for Sunday’s (May 6) Valvoline Shakedown Stages, as local crews use the island’s first tarmac rally of the year as a crucial part of their preparations for Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10), while the organising Barbados Rally Club (BRC) fine tunes its event management systems in advance of the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International.

The Oxford Universities Motorsport Foundation is returning to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International for the fourth time in five years . . . and that is roughly the time it has taken the student body to rebuild from a bare shell its ‘new’ race and rally car, a 1966 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTV.   Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) represents a return to international rallying for the first time in a decade for the Italian sports saloon, which was spotted in 2006 as an abandoned shell, awaiting the scrap man.

  As competitors in the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Virgin Atlantic Driver’s and Class Championships prepare for the upcoming Valvoline Shakedown Stages – round three of 10 in this year’s series, to be run on Sunday, May 6 – Daryl Clarke and Neil Corbin are the early pace-setters in the Driver’s title chase, with Sean Gill and Ian Warren leading the four-wheel-drive and two-wheel-drive standings respectively.

  Experience was the key to success for the crews that tackled last Saturday’s (April 14) Chefette April Safari, second round of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) MudDogs Safari Championship. After a rough drive on some very hard terrain, Reigning Champion Driver Leslie Alleyne prevailed, driving a borrowed Huzier Ltd Mahindra Pik-Up and with navigator Chris O’Neal alongside.