SOL RALLY BARBADOS 2015 DATES ANNOUNCED

The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) is planning to make Sol Rally Barbados 2015 "a real classic", worthy of the 25th Anniversary of the first running of its International All-Stage Rally in 1990. Sol RB15 will run on Saturday and Sunday, May 30/31, with Scrutineering and Scotiabank King of the Hill the previous weekend, May 23/24.

Neil Barnard, PRO of the organising club, said: "As usual, we are focussed on the core values of our premier event - a seriously competitive rally, fought out in a relaxed, clubman-style atmosphere - but are determined to make next year especially memorable. As well as social events to mark the Anniversary, plans are in hand for Sol RB15 to be a real classic, worthy of this important milestone in the Club's history.

"We are getting enquiries about the dates pretty much every day, particularly from our core markets overseas, now that the school holidays are coming to an end and families start planning for next year. Our thanks go to the island’s governing body, the Barbados Motoring Federation, for allowing us to confirm our dates before publication of the ratified BMF calendar so we can give our many long-term supporters time to prepare."

On-line entries will open on the official web site - www.rallybarbados.net – on October 1, with the closing date in mid-May 2015. In recent years, entry numbers have risen significantly, particularly from overseas crews keen to tackle what is described by many as a "must-do event", and organisers are urging early on-line entry.

Since 2011, 85 first-time visitors have pushed the number of regional and international participants hosted by the event up to more than 380, a total which looks set to burst through the 400 mark next year. The biggest competitor base remains the UK and Ireland, but the event has attracted competitors from as far afield as Australia, Canada, Japan, Kenya, South Africa and the United States, as well as mainland Europe.

Barnard added: “We have welcomed at least 20 new competitors each year since 2011, and the enquiries about our 25th Anniversary event suggest that trend will continue. We are confident of a further influx of newcomers from the UK and Ireland, while one long-established family of competitors from New Zealand even timed their holiday to coincide with Sol RB14, so they could have a close-up look at the event . . . and they got it, helping one of the British teams out as service crew!

"I would encourage international crews to enter early, as the first 30 will again benefit from subsidies, especially those who have competed in previous years. It is fantastic that Sol Rally Barbados is on the ‘must-do’ list for so many overseas competitors, and a well-deserved tribute to those volunteer marshals and officials who help the Barbados Rally Club stage an event which measures up to world-class standards.”

From small beginnings as the International All-Stage Rally in 1990, the BRC’s premier event has grown into the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international and a key player in the country’s sports-tourism product; it contributes nearly Bds $4 million to the island's economy each year, much of it in vital foreign exchange, and accounts for approaching 4,000 visitor nights at a traditionally quiet time in the tourism calendar.

Barbados rallying legend Roger Skeete has won 13 of the 25 events, including the first International All-Stage Rally in 1990 and Sol RB14 in June. Northern Ireland’s Kenny McKinstry was the first international winner in 1993; he won again in 1996, before fellow countryman Kris Meeke (2008 & ’09) and then England’s Paul Bird (2012 & '13) upped the total of international victories to six. Only two regional drivers have won, Jamaica's Jeff Panton (1998) and Gary Gregg (2006), with the remaining victories shared by local drivers Paul Bourne (twice), Trevor Manning and Roger Mayers.

Sol Rally Barbados is a two-day tarmac rally, with around 22 special stages run on the island’s intricate network of public roads, under road closure orders granted by the Ministry of Transport & Works; the Scotiabank King of the Hill ‘shakedown’, run under a similar arrangement, features four timed runs on a roughly three-kilometre stage, the results of which are used to seed the running order for the main event.

Sol Rally Barbados and Scotiabank King of the Hill are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which was founded in 1957; Sol RB15 marks the 25th Anniversary of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and the eighth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

PREVIOUS WINNERS

1990 to 2014

Rally Barbados

2014  Roger Skeete/Louis Venezia, Subaru Impreza WRC S12, 1h 12m 24.12s

2013  Paul Bird - ENG/Aled Davies - WAL, Ford Focus WRC08, 1h 00m 31.75s

2012  Paul Bird - ENG/Kirsty Riddick – SCO, Ford Focus WRC08, 1h 02m 50.60s

2011  Roger Skeete/Louis Venezia, Subaru Impreza WRC S12, 1h 05m 51.95s

2010  Roger Skeete/Louis Venezia, Subaru Impreza WRC S12, 1h 01m 07.57s

2009  Kris Meeke - NIR/Paul Nagle - NIR, Subaru Impreza WRC S9, 55m 11.84s

2008  Kris Meeke - NIR/Paul Nagle - NIR, Toyota Corolla WRC, 1h 00m 00.06s

2007  Paul Bourne/Stuart Maloney, Subaru Impreza WRC S9, 57m 34.36s

2006  Gary Gregg - JAM/Hugh Hutchinson - JAM, Ford Focus WRC02, 51m 57.89s

2005  Roger Mayers/Max Ferri, Ford Focus WRC, 58m 46.99s

2004  Roger Skeete/Dave Crawford - ENG, Ford Escort WRC, 1h 03m 04.48s

2003  Paul Bourne/Louis Venezia, Subaru Impreza WRC, 1h 21m 05.43s

International All-Stage Rally

2002  Roger Skeete/Dave Crawford - ENG, Ford Escort WRC, 1h 16m 49.80s

2001  Roger Skeete/Dave Crawford - ENG, Ford Escort Cosworth, 37m 53.21s

2000  Roger Skeete/Dave Crawford - ENG, Ford Escort Cosworth, 43m 57s

1999  Trevor Manning/Michael Ward, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V, 1h 03m 14s

1998  Jeffrey Panton - JAM/John de Mercado - JAM, Toyota Celica GT4, 51m 15s

1997  Roger Skeete/Dave Crawford - ENG, Peugeot 306 S16, 55m 55s

1996  Kenny McKinstry - NIR/Sean Gill, Ford Escort RS2000, 37m 02s

1995  Roger Skeete/Dave Crawford - ENG, Peugeot 205GTi, 37m 04s

1994  Roger Skeete/Dave Crawford - ENG, Peugeot 205GTi, 38m 55s

1993  Kenny McKinstry - NIR/Robbie Philpott - NIR, Subaru Legacy RS, 43m 24s

1992  Roger Skeete/Dave Crawford - ENG, Peugeot 205GTi, 24m 26s

1991  Roger Skeete/Roger Fields, Peugeot 205GTi, 15m 46s

1990  Roger Skeete/Charmaine Skeete, Peugeot 205GTi, 16m 08s

King of the Hill

2014  Paul Bird - ENG/Aled Davies - WAL, Ford Focus WRC08, 1m 57.68s

2013  Neil Armstrong/Barry Ward, Suzuki SX4 WRC, 1m 16.73s

2012  Paul Bird - ENG/Kirsty Riddick – SCO, Ford Focus WRC08, 1m 49.18s

2011  Roger Skeete/Louis Venezia, Subaru Impreza WRC S12, 1m 56.44s

2010  Paul Bourne/Stuart Maloney, Ford Focus WRC 07, 2m 00.16s

2009  Roger Skeete/Louis Venezia, Subaru Impreza WRC S12, 1m 50.95s

2008  Paul Bourne/Stuart Maloney, Subaru Impreza WRC S9, 1m 13.02s

Key to nationalities (unless shown, competitor is from Barbados):

ENG - England; JAM - Jamaica; NIR - Northern Ireland; SCO - Scotland; WAL - Wales