Barbados Rally Carnival


Rally Barbados
Background Rally Barbados 2003 is the 14th in a series of annual special stage rallies organised by the Barbados Rally Club (BRC); from small beginnings, the event has grown to become the Caribbean's premier motor sporting occasion, this years' the first not to carry the Texaco name, following a shift in marketing policy since that company's merger with Chevron. The BRC, which was founded in 1957, is affiliated through the Barbados Motoring Federation - the island's governing body - to the FIA. The first Texaco - in 1990 - was a one-day affair, with just nine special stages offering only around 15 minutes of competitive motoring; in 2002, 33 stages over two days totalled the best part of 100 miles. Thanks to the tremendous popularity of motor sport in Barbados, Rally Barbados is expected to attract approaching 25,000 spectators - around 10 per cent of the population - while more than 100 companies, local and international, are involved in sponsorship, either of competitors, or of the event itself. Every stage is sponsored, many provide live commentary, and a major marketing and promotional campaign keeps the event in the public eye. Rally Barbados has attracted extensive international media coverage, as the overseas press keep track of their visiting entrants - in its 13-year history, competitors from England, Ireland, Japan, Scotland, Switzerland and the United States, as well as from around the region - Guadeloupe, Guyana, Jamaica, St Vincent and Trinidad & Tobago - have arrived to take on the Bajans. In 2003, newcomers will add Austria, Finland, Holland, New Zealand and Wales to that list. In 2002, to help enhance the event's appeal to overseas crews, particularly those from Europe, the BRC invited the experienced British co-driver and organiser, Lyn Jenkins (co-ordinator of the UK's Kumho National Rally Championship), to become Rally Manager and work with the club's existing officials in introducing some organisational changes. Format Rally Barbados is now run to a largely European format, with layout, organisation, paperwork and timing that will be familiar to an overseas competitor. It is run over two days on closed public roads throughout the island, with the start at 1000hrs on Saturday, a lunch break around 1430hrs and the last stage starting at around 1930hrs. On Sunday, an earlier restart - 0730hrs - is followed by lunch at noon, then the finish at 1600hrs. Thanks to the island's relative proximity to the Equator, night falls rapidly, and Saturday's final three stages are run in the dark. In 2002, there were 33 stages, nine in each of the first three loops, then six in the shorter Sunday afternoon loop . . . after all, there has to be time for the party at the finish! The stages vary in length from a little over one mile to around five miles, the countryside is undulating and the roads tight - although the surface is tarmac, much of it is old and built with limestone aggregate and doesn't offer the sort of grip European visitors might expect. Triple usage of each stage venue - the first car returns only an hour or so after the last car left - not only makes maximum use of the available road closure time, but also helps to limit spectator traffic on the island's busy roads. For the start, cars are seeded in a similar way to that common in Britain, with the fastest cars running first - this was new for the island in 2002 - and then re-seeded into the order of overnight classification for the Sunday restart.