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The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) will mark its 66th Anniversary this weekend (June 24/25) with a 16-hour overnight test of skill and endurance. The Chefette June Safari salutes the Club’s roots in navigational rallying, which began in 1957 with ‘The June’, as it is fondly known, the longest-established motor sport event in the region with a continuous history, interrupted only by the pandemic in 2021.
With 10 wins - two as navigator and eight as driver - Leslie Alleyne sits atop ‘The June’s Roll of Honour, which lists 74 winning drivers and navigators; on paper, Alleyne and navigator Chris O’Neal, himself a six-time winner of the premier MudDogs event, look to be favourites to increase their record in the Pod Store/Maxxis/Lucky Locks Suzuki Jimny, but there is competition aplenty.
Winners of the first round of this year’s Chefette BRC MudDogs Championship, father and son team Stephen and Ben Moore will present a major threat in their Moore & Moore Services/Maxxis Isuzu DMax, in which they lead Class B. While the family partnership are relative newcomers, father Stephen currently leads the Driver Challenge standings, with three maximum points scores so far, while navigator Ben has finished on the podium in ‘The June’ before: he finished third in 2018 as driver to Andrew Croney, then fifth last year, winning Class B, as navigator to first-timer Luke Cozier.
Croney is entered again, too, seeking that elusive win – after his third-place finish in 2018, he finished second last year as navigator to David Armstrong, with whom he won the Chefette championship in 2020; this year, he navigates for Simon Parravicino (Realtors Jeep Wrangler), with second place in the Super-S March Safari their best result. With Ben Norris and Kirk Watkins (Jeep Rubicon), who won ‘The June’ in 2019, also on the entry list confirmed at last night’s (Tuesday) Briefing Meeting at the BCTSA Clubhouse, Searles, Christ Church, along with Stephen Mayers and David Reece (Toyota Hilux), who finished third in 2019 and last year, a close-fought event is in prospect.
‘Biddy’ Barber’s association with the Rally Club goes back to its early days, when she first competed as a teenager . . . and she is still up for the challenge; she and Bridget Garity (Suzuki Samurai) are the only all-woman crew entered, while Sameisha Williams, fresh from an overall finish in Sol Rally Barbados with Natya Soodeen, will navigate for Tyrone Chase (Suzuki Vitara), the first crew to leave the startline on Saturday.
The route has been set by Warwick Eastmond and Chris King, who won ‘The June’ in 2020 and went on to finish second in the Championship that year. There will be three routes and a total distance of approximately 195km, which will put crews through a tough test, as King explains: “Route 1 and 2 are really focused in the south and east of the island before we venture north for the final route. The navigational methods are regular tulip, 90-degree tulip, straightline, BRC, mileages, point to point and we are trying out tulip to the map as well.”
The first crew will start from Chefette Charles Row Bridge, St George, at 2.01pm for a roughly four-hour route that will conclude with the first of two Driver Challenges just outside the Pit Gate to the south-easts of Bushy Park Barbados in St Philip at 6.15pm. After the first stop-over at Chefette Six Roads, the second Driver Challenge will be a variation of the previous Bushy Park test, running at 8.00pm, starting the longer route two, which will lead crews to a second stop-over at Chefette Warrens at around 1.15am; the final route and the event will finish at the Vaucluse Raceway, St Thomas, at 6.00am.
‘The June’ is the longest-established motor sport event in the region with a continuous history, although it was not run in 2021 when prevailing Covid-19 protocols prevented driver and navigator sitting in a vehicle together; weeks after the inaugural event was run, the organising committee called the participants together – there had been a 60-strong entry in 1957 - and agreed to form the BRC, which is now the oldest organisation in the island devoted to a sport not played with a ball and the oldest motor sport club in the region still bearing its original name.
Chefette MudDogs Safari Championship
Round 3 – June 24/25 – Chefette MudDogs June Safari
Class A
4 Simon Parravicino/Andrew Croney (Realtors Ltd Jeep Wrangler)
5 Ben Norris/Kirk Watkins (Jeep Rubicon)
7 Biddy Barber (F)/Bridget Garity (F) (KG Enterprises Suzuki Samurai)
8 Leslie Alleyne/Chris O’Neal (POD Store/Maxxis/Lucky Locks Suzuki Jimny)
9 Stephen Mayers/David Reece (Toyota Hilux)
11 Gary Mendes/Johnathan King (G & G Sales and Service/Lunatics Inc/SRT/Executive Air Ltd/Homeomart Barbados/Homeopathy Barbados/Grenadine Alliance/JetStream Air Services Inc Daihatsu Rocky)
Class B
1 Tyrone Chase/Sameisha Williams (F) (Suzuki Vitara)
2 George Mendes/tba (Suzuki Vitara)
3 Josh Richings/Willie Hinds (Suzuki LJ80)
6 Alex Ince/Damien Johnson (Rid A Bug Inc/Creative Water Systems Toyota Hilux)
10 Stephen Moore/Ben Moore (Moore & Moore Services/Maxxis Isuzu DMax)
Chefette MudDogs Safari Championship – positions after two rounds:
Drivers: 1st Leslie Alleyne, 120 points; 2nd Stephen Moore, 118pts; 3rd Gary Mendes, 112pts; 4th George Mendes, 96pts; 5th Robert Warren, 94pts; 6th Tyrone Chase, 82pts; etc
Navigators: 1st Chris O’Neal, 120pts; 2nd Ben Moore, 118pts; 3rd Andrew Croney, 112pts; 4th Tye Warren, 94pts; 5th Charles Clarke, 88pts; 6th Sameisha Williams (F), 82pts; etc
Class B Drivers: 1st Stephen Moore, 120pts; 2nd Robert Warren, 112pts; 3rd George Mendes, 110pts; 4th Tyrone Chase, 100pts; 5th Alex Ince, 58pts; 6th Adam Hunte, 56pts; etc
Class B Navigators: 1st Ben Moore, 120pts; 2nd Tye Warren, 112pts; equal 3rd Charles Clarke & Sameisha Williams (F), 100pts; 5th Damien Johnson, 58pts; equal 6th Samantha Gibbs (F) & Kevin-Jon Manning, 56pts; etc
Driver Challenge points: 1st Stephen Moore, 25pts; equal 2nd Gary Mendes & Jamaal Walkes, 13pts; equal 4th Jabarry Knight & George Mendes, 11pts; etc
Chefette MudDogs Safari Championship – remaining rounds: Sep 17, BRC MudDogs September Safari; Nov 19, BRC MudDogs November Safari
For media information only. No regulatory value.
For further media information, robin@bradfax.com [2]
Web sites: www.barbadosrallyclub.com [3], www.muddogsbarbados.com [4]
