Bushy Park Sprint to start Rally Club season

The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Driver’s and Class Championships will kick off on Saturday, June 5 with a Double-Header Sprint at Bushy Park, St Philip. In line with current Covid-19 protocols, the event will run behind closed doors, with no spectators on site and no passengers or navigators allowed, although competitors will get the chance to walk the course ahead of the start.

  The provisional calendar, which remains subject to prevailing Covid-19 protocols particularly in respect of events scheduled to be run under road closure orders, lists eight qualifying events for the first time since 2016. After the season-opener, BRC will share the Motoring Club of Barbados Inc’s (MCBI) Double-Header Sprint in July before a mid-year break. The second half of season will comprise September’s King of the Hill and Sol Rally Barbados (each day scored separately), then the BRC Winter Rally in December, which will carry the now-traditional year-end enhanced points system.

  Rally Club PRO Neil Barnard said: “We are really excited to be kicking off the Barbados Rally Club’s Championship with this event at Bushy Park. Together with BPCI management, we have come up with a rather unusual but cracking course that really does have a bit of everything - even elevation changes! I have to thank Bushy Park for working with us on this event, which will be held within a non-spectator environment and under strict health and safety protocols as a result of Covid-19."

  Scrutineering is scheduled for Friday evening (June 4) between 5.00pm and 7.00pm in the Pits at Bushy Park, with a two-hour test session starting at 8.00am on Saturday on the International Circuit, after which an hour has been set aside for the organisers to set up the stage. The track time is purely to allow competitors the chance to test their cars and is not ‘practice session’ for the event, as it will run in the usual direction and on the full 2.01-kilometre configuration, without any of the inner link roads.

  BRC Vice-Chairman Neil Corbin commented: “Since this is a sprint event, there will be no pace noting session, and due to protocols, no passengers or navigators will be permitted. Competitors will be given a brief opportunity to walk the course in advance of the start. As expected, all Covid-19 protocols will be in place and we are asking participants to respect the usual social distancing and mask wearing protocols.”

  For Event One, which is scheduled for 11.30am sharp, the stage will start in the north-west corner of the facility, close to the start pad used by the Barbados Association of Dragsters & Drifters (BADD) and cover around three kilometres, using sections of the International Circuit, the kart links and the Rallycross Bridge, then finishing in the pit lane. For Event Two, which is scheduled to start at 3.00pm, the course will be reversed, although it will be a few hundred metres shorter. There will be four runs in each direction, with BRC Championship points awarded separately for both.

  Entries opened at Motorsport Services, Haggatt Hall, on Tuesday (May 25) and will close next Wednesday, June 2, at 3.00pm; competitors wishing to enter after this date will be required to pay a late fee and no entries will be accepted after 12.00pm on Thursday, June 3. There will be a Briefing Meeting and Covid-19 Briefing immediately after the BRC’s AGM that same evening at the Barbados Clay Target Shooting Association’s (BCTSA) Clubhouse, Searles, Christ Church, during which the running order will be published.

BRC Driver’s & Class Championships

Provisional calendar 2021:

Rounds 1 & 2: June 5 – BRC Double-Header Sprint

Rounds 3 & 4: July 18 - MCBI/BRC Double-Header Sprint

Round 5: September 19 - King of the Hill

Rounds 6 & 7: September 25/26 – Sol Rally Barbados

Round 8: December 5 - BRC Winter Rally

For media information only. No regulatory value.

For further media information, robin@bradfax.com

Web site: www.barbadosrallyclub.com