[1]Marshal exchange scheme agreed with ground-breaking Welsh event
Following this year’s successful 30th running of its premier event, which attracted more than 40 overseas entries for the fifth year in a row, the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) has announced the provisional dates for Sol Rally Barbados 2020. Subject to final ratification by the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF), Sol RB20 will run from Friday to Sunday, May 29 to 31, with The Rally Show (May 23) and Flow King of the Hill (May 24) the previous weekend.
The event has evolved from small beginnings as the International All-Stage Rally of 1990 into the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International and a key National Event on the island’s sports-tourism calendar. As has been the practice in the recent past, on-line entries will open on the official web site - www.rallybarbados.net [2] – on October 1, which falls on a Tuesday this year, and close in early May 2020.
Following its steady growth over the past three decades, the event now contributes around Bds $4 million to the economy each year, much of it in valuable foreign exchange, and accounts for as many as 4,000 visitor nights at a traditionally quiet time in the tourism calendar. The 80 overseas participants in Sol RB19, of whom 19 were new to the event, came from 13 countries, while there was a record number of female competitors for the third year in a row. Adding the 2019 statistics to those of previous years, the event has now hosted more than 500 overseas participants from 29 countries. The biggest competitor base remains the UK and Ireland, but competitors have come from as far afield as Kenya, New Zealand and the United States.
Sol Rally Barbados is a tarmac rally, with around 24 special stages run on the island’s intricate network of public roads, under road closure orders granted by the Ministry of Transport & Works; the previous Sunday’s Flow King of the Hill ‘shakedown’, 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.
Marshal exchange scheme agreed with ground-breaking Welsh event
The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) has agreed a marshal exchange scheme with the organisers of the ground-breaking Rali Bae Ceredigion, the first closed-road stage rally in Wales, which has attracted a capacity entry of high quality for its inaugural running in three weeks’ time (Sunday, September 8).
Rali Bae Ceredigion will offer its marshal body the opportunity to attend Sol Rally Barbados 2020, with the names of the winners announced immediately after this year’s event. The marshals will enjoy return flights to Barbados funded by the Welsh organisers, with the Rally Club arranging accommodation in the island. In return, marshals from Barbados will enjoy the same benefits for Rali Bae Ceredigion 2020, return flights funded by the BRC, with accommodation arranged by the Welsh organisers.
Rally Club PRO Neil Barnard said: “The scheme was suggested by Charlie Jukes, who many island fans will remembering battling for class victory with the Starlets of Barry Mayers and Ian Warren in his front-wheel-drive Proton back in 2001. The Club is always looking for innovative ways to reward our volunteers, so we jumped at the idea. We are still working on the criteria for eligibility, which we will confirm shortly.”
Jukes, who is the event’s Marketing & Hospitality Manager, said: “I have very happy memories of my trip to Barbados, but can’t believe it was 18 years ago. 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, which was formally launched to the media last Friday (August 9), will be based in Aberystwyth on the west coast of Wales, with the start, finish and service area at the town’s University. Four special stages in the Cambrian Mountains will be run once each in the morning and afternoon, to give a total of 44 competitive miles and 44 road miles. The event will be broadcast live on-line using a number of social media platforms, hosted by WRC presenters Becs Williams, a regular visitor to Sol Rally Barbados, and Emyr Penlan.
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.
For media information only. No regulatory value.
For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com [3]
web sites: www.rallybarbados.net [2]; www.barbadosrallyclub.com [4]
