Rally

After a day-long battle with winning margins logged in just tenths or hundredths of a second, Stuart Maloney snatched victory in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Shakedown Stages on Sunday (April 6). Less than 10 seconds covered the top four at the finish, as Jamaica’s Kyle Gregg and Jeff Panton deprived early rally leader, Britain’s Rob Swann, of a podium finish and the leading contenders gained some valuable pointers head of BCIC Rally Barbados 2025.

The Martinique Rallye Tour (July 24-27) will be added to the calendar for the 2025 Barbados Rally2 Championship, which opens with the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Shakedown Stages on Sunday (April 6). The Championship is inscribed on the National Calendar of the FIA for the first time, following a recent agreement with the French governing body, the FFSA.

Four drivers are currently tied in the chase for the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Champion Driver title ahead of next Sunday’s (April 6) third round, the BRC Shakedown Stages. Kevin Armstrong, David-Anthony Balgobin, Stuart Maloney and Rhett Watson have each scored 30 points in their respective classes.

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.

Champions were celebrated for their achievements and volunteers recognised for their commitment to motor sport at the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Annual Prizegiving at Savvy on the Bay, Bridgetown, on Friday evening (March 14). Competitors from rallying, off-road events and autocross mixed with marshals and officials in a convivial gathering as trophies and keepsakes were presented.

Paul Woodford, whose informed commentary on British rallying has generated a huge following among competitors and fans alike, is to return to BCIC Rally Barbados for a second time. Confirmation of his trip follows a working weekend at the East Riding Stages Rally (February 23) in his home county of Yorkshire, which was contested by more than 30 past or future participants in the island’s premier event.

Two-time UK regional rally champion Dan Gibson is to mark his 50th birthday next Thursday (February 27) by entering his one-of-a-kind Clan Crusader rally car in BCIC Rally Barbados 2025. His 52-year-old car, the only Clan granted a Motorsport UK Historic Passport, will face off against the Hillman Imp of returning Irishman Mick Smith in the island’s Historic 1 class.

Two-time Rally Barbados-winning co-driver, Ireland’s Paul Nagle, will join the Barbados Motoring Federation’s (BMF) instructors for the upcoming Motorsport Training Weekend (February 1/2) at Bushy Park. Nagle and fellow-countryman Kris Meeke won RB08 and RB09, then the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge before graduating to the World Rally Championship, winning five WRC rounds between 2015 and ’17.

BCIC Rally Barbados 2024 winner and reigning Barbados Rally Club Champion Driver Stuart Maloney finished sixth last Saturday (January 18) in the MGJ Engineering Brands Hatch Winter Stages, fourth of nine rounds in the UK’s Protyre Circuit Rally Championship (CRC). The event was won by 2023/24 CRC Champion Michael Igoe, with former Champions Barry Morris, John Griffiths and Chris West, plus current points-leader John Stone the only other drivers to beat Maloney.

The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) is well advanced in its planning for BCIC Rally Barbados 2025, with over four months to run before the 35th edition of its premier event. Giving an update this week, Event Director Neil Barnard expressed satisfaction with progress so far, emphasising the importance of the adage ‘If you fail to plan - you plan to fail’.