Jean-Joseph confirms Porsche for BCIC RB25

Two-time European Rally Champion Simon Jean-Joseph will return to Barbados for the first time since 2016 to compete in BCIC RB25. He will be joined in a two-car attack on the event from his island home by former National Champion and organiser of the Martinique Rallye Tour (MRT), Willy Nallamoutou-Sancho.
  BCIC RB25, the Caribbean’s biggest motor sport international, will run from Friday, May 30 to Sunday, June 1. The Auto & Rally Show, where every car entered is on display in an annual celebration of island rallying, and the final shakedown and seeding event, First Citizens King of the Hill, fill the previous weekend (May 24/25).
  Backed by his usual partners and with the support of the Barbados Rally Club and sponsorship from Valvoline, Jean-Joseph will drive a Porsche 991 GT3 Cup in SuperModified 2, set to be the best-subscribed class for the second year running. His co-driver will be Patrick Pivato, with whom he won the Amateur title in the 1997 French Rally Championship in a Subaru Impreza 555, by which time he had won 25 regional events and more in mainland France.
  His amateur success earned a call-up to the World Rally Championship, first in a works Ford Focus, then Subaru and Kronos Peugeot, claiming six top 10 results before switching to two-wheel-drive and Super 1600 in 2002, the start of a long record of giant-killing acts. In a Renault Clio, he won three times on his way to the European title in 2004, winning his second in 2007 against exclusively 4wd machinery in a PH Sport-prepared Citroën C2. After his last title win, the 2011 French Gravel Championship in a Peugeot 207, he retired from regular competition, but remained in the sport, as gravel crew for multiple WRC Champion Sebastien Ogier.
  Jean-Joseph competed in the 25th Anniversary edition of Rally Barbados in 2015 in a Focus WRC07, his first 4wd tarmac rally for 15 years. Locked in an intense battle for victory, he was beaten by Jamaica’s Jeff Panton (Focus WRC06) by just 2.09secs, with the late Paul Bird third (Focus WRC07) another 6secs back.
  In the same car in 2016, he and Panton were joint winners of King of the Hill after a downpour prevented improved final run times, but differential failure on Sunday morning ended his chances of victory in RB16. Since then, he has competed in a number of regional events, winning the Martinique Rallye Tour four times, three years in a Citroen, then last year in a Porsche similar to the new car he is shipping to Barbados.
  Nallamoutou-Sancho’s entry of a Skoda Fabia R5 brings to 15 the entries so far for the FIA R5 class, equalling last year’s record, with others yet to be confirmed; he won the Martinique title in 2011 and claimed multiple class wins over many seasons in a Citroen C2 R2 MAX, Renault Clio RS and Peugeot 207 S2000 at home and in Guadeloupe.
  Since 2016, through his company WNS Racing, he has been the driving force behind the MRT, the seventh edition of which is in July this year. His co-driver for BCIC RB25 is Philippe Eguoy, like Jean-Joseph and Nallamoutou-Sancho a former Martinique Champion, having won the title in 2014 driving a Clio RS.
  Many fans from Martinique are expected to follow their local heroes, with trips already being advertised through MRT’s social media channels.

Rally Barbados is a tarmac rally, with around 20 special stages run on the island’s intricate network of public roads, under road closure orders granted by the Ministry of Transport & Works; the previous Sunday’s King of the Hill ‘shakedown’, run under a similar arrangement, features four timed runs on a roughly four-kilometre stage, the results of which are used to seed the running order for the main event.

For media information only. No regulatory value.

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