Closed-road successes for Sol Rally Barbados Escorts
Chefette Restaurants is to sponsor the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) innovative Marshal Exchange Incentive Programme, organised in partnership with last Sunday’s (September 8) Rali Bae Ceredigion, the first closed-road stage rally in Wales. Three Bajan marshals will travel to the 2020 edition of the Welsh event, their return flights funded by Chefette, a long-term supporter of the island’s motor sport volunteers, while marshals from Rali Bae Ceredigion will attend Sol Rally Barbados 2020.
Subject to final ratification by the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF), the 31st running of the BRC’s premier event is slated for Friday to Sunday, May 29 to 31, with The Rally Show (May 23) and Flow King of the Hill (May 24) the previous weekend. On-line entries for Sol RB20 will open on the official web site - www.rallybarbados.net – on Tuesday, October 1, and close in early May 2020.
Rally Club PRO Neil Barnard said: “We are absolutely delighted that Chefette has agreed to be the sole sponsor of this new initiative, increasing the company’s long-standing support for our volunteers. A programme of this nature is something the marshals’ team leaders have been asking about for some time and the news that we can finally go ahead, with support from Chefette, has been enthusiastically received.” Chefette’s Ryan Haloute described the Marshal Exchange Incentive Programme as “awesome” and a "great initiative", which was fantastic for their brand.
One marshal from each of the Club’s three teams of volunteers will be selected by the team leaders, the decision based on a number of criteria, including attendance at all of the BRC’s major events between October this year and July 2020 and each marshal’s performance. The first event to be part of the programme will be next month’s Winter Rally, with a Marshals’ Training Day planned a week or so in advance.
The tie-up with Rali Bae Ceredigion was first suggested by Charlie Jukes, the event’s Marketing & Hospitality Manager, who is still remembered by island fans for his press-on driving style in a front-wheel-drive Proton on his only visit to compete in 2001. Jukes said: “I have very happy memories of my trip to Barbados. It is such a special event and has a good following among Welsh crews, so it is an ideal reward for our volunteers, who are so important to motor sport on both sides of the Atlantic.”
Get Connected Rali Bae Ceredigion was based in Aberystwyth on the west coast of Wales, with the start, finish and service area at the town’s University. After 44 competitive miles over four special stages in the Cambrian Mountains, run once each in the morning and afternoon, Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss beat the identical Hyundai i20 RT5 of Tom Cave and Dale Bowen by just 7.7 seconds, with Jason Tauber Pritchard and Phil Clarke third in a Ford Escort MkII, a further 2:21.9s adrift.
Closed-road successes for Sol Rally Barbados Escorts
Since the law was changed last year, closed-road events are now an area of steady growth in British rallying, with two last weekend. In the Hills Ford Three Shires Stages the day before Rali Bae Ceredigion, three Ford Escorts which finished in the top 20 in Sol RB19 enjoyed even better results. After finishing 15th overall and winning the historic class in the island, Alex Allingham and Ross Weir finished an impressive – and sideways - third overall in the Weir Rally Team Ford Escort MkII, behind Martyn and Dawn England (Ford Fiesta R5) and the Darrian T90 V6 of Andy Fraser and Alan Jones.
Jersey’s Darryl Morris and Steve Gully, who finished 17th overall and second in SuperModified 2 in their MkII Escort in June, were sixth overall on Saturday, winning Class C, while Peter Rayner and Ashley Trimble, who had finished 20th and third in SM2, came home 14th overall and second in Class D in their Escort.
Other names familiar to island fans included Oliver Hopkins, a DNF in his Group A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo in Sol RB15 (with Trimble as co-driver); he finished seventh last Saturday in his Mitsubishi Mirage, winning Class E with co-driver Aled Edwards, whose best island result was sixth with Rob Swann (Subaru Impreza WRC S11) in Sol RB15. Paul Spooner, who sat with Steve Perez four times in island events, also claimed third-in-class finish, co-driving Tim Hill’s Ford Fiesta R2T.
Sol Rally Barbados and Flow King of the Hill are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 60th Anniversary in 2017; Sol RB20 marks the 13th year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company, and the fifth by communications provider Flow.
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For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com
web sites: www.rallybarbados.net; www.barbadosrallyclub.com
