Ireland’s most successful co-driver Paul Nagle, who twice won Rally Barbados with Kris Meeke, returns to the event this year as the International Safety Delegate. Since retiring in 2022, Nagle has taken a keen interest in the organisational aspects of the sport and has recently been appointed as the FIA Sporting Delegate and Observer for 10 of the 14 rounds of this year’s European Rally Trophy.
BCIC RB24 (May 31-June 2) is the 34th edition of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event which has its roots in the International All-Stage Rally of 1990; since then, the event has grown in stature to become the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International and a key component in the promotion of ‘Motorsport Island’. The Rally Show and First Citizens King of the Hill (KotH), the final shakedown and seeding event, will be staged on May 25 and 26.
Nagle won RB08 with Meeke in a Toyota Corolla WRC, despite the car running with only two-wheel-drive for the final day, then repeated their victory the following year in a Subaru Impreza WRC S9. Nagle and Meeke went on to win the Intercontinental Rally Challenge for Peugeot in 2009 before progressing to the World Rally Championship, winning five WRC rounds for Citroen between 2013 and ’18. With the late Craig Breen, he won the Irish Tarmac Championship in 2019 and claimed a string of WRC podiums and top 10 finishes for Hyundai before retiring.
With a background on both sides of the sport – his father Maurice was a co-driver and organiser – Nagle was already considering his future when he attended RB23 as Deputy Safety Officer working with Event Director Neil Barnard and Clerk of the Course Barry Gale. Since then, he has attended a number of courses to qualify as an FIA Steward: “When the opportunity came up, I was excited to have the chance to give something back to the sport and to move on a little bit for myself.
“I was delighted to be part of the team in 2023 and I felt it was an excellent event and I really enjoyed working alongside Neil, Barry and all the officials. They all have great passion for the sport and they put in huge amount of work. It’s a pleasure to be involved with all of them.”
Barnard is delighted to welcome Nagle back to the island: “Paul’s experience and knowledge is extensive and his input and assistance on last year’s event was fantastic. He worked very closely with our teams and provided us with enhanced oversight in the areas of safety, on-time performance and overall event execution. We learnt a lot and I am thrilled to have him back this year.”BCIC Rally Barbados (May 31-June 2) 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 & Water Resources; the previous Sunday’s (May 26) First Citizens King of the Hill sprint, 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.
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