[1]British returnees boost the Historic class
The K&N/Denso Racing SuperSpecial at Bushy Park will bring Sol Rally Barbados 2022 to a floodlit climax and introduce an exciting new sponsor to motor sport in the island. The St Philip facility will play a key role in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) blue riband event this year, hosting The Rally Show for the first time, in addition to Rally Central, home to many of the overseas crews, the Rally Office, which is the event’s administrative hub, Scrutineering, and pre-event track testing sessions.
As the BRC, which celebrates its 65th Anniversary this year, reveals more of its plans the date for The Rally Show is now confirmed as Saturday, May 28, with King of the Hill on the Sunday. Sol RB22 will be staged over the following weekend (June 4 & 5), culminating with the K&N/Denso Racing SuperSpecial, scheduled to start at 7.00pm. On-line entries have now closed and the final countdown is under way.
The K&N and Denso brands are represented in the region by Panama-based Benitomo World, founded in 1992. The authorised distributor for Denso, having represented the brand for 20 years, it has also been exclusive regional distributor for K&N since 2020. Commercial Director for the Caribbean, Eduardo J Santana said: "Joining with the Barbados Rally Club provides us with a great opportunity to increase our brand awareness and market share in the region. The impact these brands have in the high-performance automotive world is huge, and we are excited to support this major Caribbean event.”
Bushy Park Operations Director Amy Willis said: “We are thrilled to be hosting multiple elements of Sol Rally Barbados 2022 and are looking forward to welcoming the Barbados Rally Club and their competitors back to Bushy Park, along with spectators, who we suspect will be out in their numbers.”
Neil Barnard, the Rally Club’s PRO, said: “We are delighted to partner with Benitomo World and welcome these two globally prominent brands - K&N and Denso - to Sol Rally Barbados. It has always been a real pleasure working with the team at Bushy Park and we are looking forward to returning to the circuit where they will host the Rally Show, Rally Central and the K&N/Denso Racing SuperSpecial which is scheduled to be the final stage of Sol Rally Barbados 2022.”
British returnees boost the Historic class
Three returning UK drivers complete the Historic class at Sol RB22. Scotland’s Robin Hamilton will pit his recently-built Gleaner Oil and Gas Talbot Sunbeam Lotus against the MkII Ford Escorts of Sean Kukula, whose entry was confirmed last month, Dick Mauger and Chris Shooter, along with the local entries of John Corbin and Harold Morley.
Hamilton and wife Vanessa marked their 10th wedding anniversary with a trip to Sol RB17 with a Talbot Sunbeam Ti and returned the following year with their MG Metro 6R4, twice winning their class. Three-time top female co-driver in the Scottish Tarmac Championship (STC) Vanessa will enjoy an outing at KotH, while Barbados regular Steve McNulty will sit with Robin, who has twice won the STC, for Sol RB22.
Of the new car Hamilton said: “We built the Sunbeam in-house using a lot of parts gathered over the years and it’s as near to a works car as possible. I usually build my own engines, but decided to treat myself for my big birthday, so this one has been built by Phil Davison, who built the works engines for Tony Pond and Henri Toivonen. I’ve done a few test days to shake the car down before competing at Weston Park for its maiden event, where it ran faultlessly with Vanessa co-driving. Then I did Ingliston a few weeks ago with Steve; we had a few wee issues with the car but had a steady run mostly and set some good times - shame there wasn’t a historic class.”
Dick Mauger, a veteran rallyist of more than 50 years, returns in a Major Farm Services Ford Escort MkII to compete for the seventh time, although he missed Sol RB19 after falling ill after KotH. He has finished five times, winning Modified 6 in a Nissan Micra (Sol RB14), also matching that year’s 33rd overall placing in Sol RB18 in a SuperModified 2 Escort. Now in his 70s, Mauger and his hugely experienced co-driver Liz Jordan, who marks 50 years of rallying this October, have the distinction of being the oldest crew in the event . . . but that does not mean they can be discounted by the opposition.
Chris Shooter and partner Bev Le Good return for a sixth time to compete in their Sparrowhill Cars Escort, although they have returned to the island twice for holidays outside rally time. Regular competitors in the British Historic Rally Championship (BHRC) from 2006 to 2011, winning their class in 2008 and collecting the Shekhar Mehta ‘Spirit of Rallying’ Award the following year, they limited their outings after that, competing occasionally on the Tour of Flanders, Rally Isle of Man and Wales Rally GB. They have been class-winners in Flanders and in 2013 finished 10th overall on Rally Isle of Man and 29th overall on Wales Rally GB National and were class-winners on Sol RB15.
Sol Rally Barbados and King of the Hill are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrates its 65th Anniversary in 2022; Sol RB22 marks the 15th year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.
For media information only. No regulatory value.
For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com [2]
web sites: www.rallybarbados.net [3]; www.barbadosrallyclub.com [4]
