Floodlit stages at Bushy Park to start Rally Barbados

There’s an exciting new experience in store for rally fans on Friday as the record 102 cars entered for BCIC Rally Barbados will contest two floodlit stages at Bushy Park in St Philip.

Two-time winners Dane Skeete and Tyler Mayhew are top seeds for the 34th edition of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event, which includes nearly 70 overseas drivers and co-drivers on the running order.

Friday’s two 2.6-kilometre Bushy Park stages start a short distance outside the facility and finish under floodlights inside. Between them, crews head off for a 5.9km run through Featherbed Lane in St John, but the action inside the venue will be virtually non-stop as the first cars in SS3 will almost immediately follow the last in SS1.

Having won Rally Barbados in 2019 and 2022 in his Subaru Impreza WRC S12, Skeete added a second King of the Hill (KotH) victory last Sunday and will be looking to win both in the same year, a feat only once achieved by his father Roger Skeete, who did the double in 2011.

Starting at two are Stuart Maloney and Kristian Yearwood, who finished third last year behind Skeete and New Zealanders Hayden Paddon and John Kennard.

Winner of the first Barbados R5 title in 2022, Maloney has a new Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 and a burning desire to win the event as a driver, having triumphed as co-driver with the late Paul Bourne in 2007.
Maloney’s brother Mark, who won the final R5 round last year, starts at three in a Fabia Rally2 evo with son Justin on the notes, with five-time Rally Barbados winner Jeff Panton at four in a similar car.

Panton, the first regional winner in 1998, marks his 20th entry this year with long-term co-driver Mike Fennell.
The top six is completed by local crew Josh Read and Mark Jordan (Fiesta R5), leaders of the renamed Barbados Rally2 Championship and the highest-placed European entry, England’s Kevin Procter in his WRC class Fiesta S2000T, with co-driver Patrick Walsh.
With 25 cars in the 4wd classes, a total only achieved once in the past 15 years, the highest-seeded two-wheel-drive car will start at number 11. Having become the first crew to win three successive 2wd titles at KotH, Roger Mayers and Barry Ward lead the 2wd contenders in their Toyota WR Starlet.

Back for his first full season in a while, Rhett Watson starts at 19, with new British co-driver Sam Perring in his BMW M3, and heads five cars from the SuperModified 2 class, which promise some lively competition as two more returnees, Daryl Clarke (Suzuki Swift RS) and Brian Gill (BMW M3), take on established front-runners Barry Mayers (Fiesta) and Andrew Jones (Ford Escort MkII).
In addition to the battle for overall and 2wd supremacy, there are 12 contested classes.

(PR/RB)