With less than two weeks to go before their cars are due to sail from Portsmouth on the English south coast for the 11-day voyage across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Geest Line freighter Klipper Stream, competitors the length and breadth of the UK are making final preparations for Sol Rally Barbados 2015.
As competitors in the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Driver’s and Class Championships start preparations for the upcoming BRC Shakedown Stages (Sunday, April 19), the second of eight rounds this year, there is a three-way tie in the Champion Driver’s title chase between Edward Corbin, Jeremy Croney and Reigning Champion Rhett Watson.
Two immaculate Peugeot rally cars are already seven days into a voyage that will establish a new distance record for the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international. They left New Zealand on Friday, March 27, heading for the Bridgetown Port, where they will be off-loaded in time to compete in Sol Rally Barbados 2015.
Regional Champions Jeffrey Panton, who has won his home event Rally Jamaica a record eight times, John Powell, the four-time winner of Rally Trinidad, and Kyle Gregg, who won Rally Jamaica last year, have confirmed their entries for Sol Rally Barbados 2015, boosting the four-wheel-drive entry to 21, with others still in the pipeline.
Local hero Roger ‘The Sheriff’ Skeete, 13-time overall winner of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event, and former UK National Rally Champion Roger Duckworth – fifth overall and winner of WRC-2 for the past two years – have confirmed participation in Sol Rally Barbados 2015 (May 29-31), bringing the four-wheel-drive entry to 18.
The largest-ever group to visit Sol Rally Barbados from one motor club in the UK is making a celebratory trip this year. Led by legendary BMW driver Martin Stockdale, the ‘Worksop Warriors’ will field four cars in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) 25th Anniversary event (May 29-31), with 30 family, friends and supporters making the trip.
A collaboration between the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF), two British safety experts and the organisers of last year’s Race Of Champions at Bushy Park has resulted in a valuable legacy for island motor sport – the donation of specialist ‘Jaws of Life’ equipment, which will be available to all BMF Member Clubs and deployed for the first time at next Sunday’s (March 15) Motoring Club of Barbados Inc Spring Blaze
LIME, the leading telecoms provider in Barbados, has significantly stepped up its commitment to the Barbados Rally Club (BRC). A marketing partner since 2010, LIME is the new title sponsor of King of the Hill, the final shakedown before Sol Rally Barbados 2015 (May 29-31), which mark’s the 25th Anniversary of the Club’s premier event.
Almost exclusively, the Barbados Historic Rally Carnival has enjoyed the aural excellence of howling 16-valve, four-cylinder and barking, flat-six Porsche engines.
Former British Historic Rally Championship Class Champions Chris Shooter and Bev LeGood took some years to give in to pressure from friends before they made their Caribbean debut on Sol Rally Barbados 2014, but returning for the 25th Anniversary of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event “was an easy decision to make.”
