Barbados Historic Rally Carnival 2010 won by local driver

Bajan rallying hotshot Stuart White, co-driven by Jason O'Neil, dominated the RallySprint event at Bushy Park Raceway on the Rally Carnival's first weekend, in his highly-modified 1600cc Toyota Starlet, following this with a Classic Group 3 class win in the Historic asphalt rally on the second weekend.

White's consistent class performance throughout the two-week Rally Carnival - during RallySprint qualifying, RallySprint heats and both routes of the rally - all contributed to the final score and earned him the prestigious Andrew Phillips Memorial King of the Carnival prize. This award commemorates its namesake's huge efforts toward raising the profile of special stage rallying in Barbados, through inviting a succession of international drivers and cars to compete on the island. Andrew's initiative essentially laid the foundation for what became the Barbados Rally Carnival many years later.

The King of the Carnival prize is an exchange programme; if a local Barbadian crew wins, they get an all-expenses-paid entry to a foreign event which is consequently used as a promotional tour by Rally Carnival organisers. If a foreign crew wins the prize, they get a free entry back to the Barbados Rally Carnival. This exchange of people and ideas, the richest prize in Caribbean motor sport, helps the local organisers to promote and grow the Rally Carnival. This year, the exchange arrangement is with the Killarney Historic Rally in Ireland in December.

Greg Cozier is delighted with this result: "We couldn't be happier with the outcome," he said.

"Stuart is the ultimate representation of a club competitor, building and maintaining his own car and subsidising the costs by working on other rally cars in his spare time."

A close-fought rally battle between Yorkshire drivers Graham Wilcock and Nick Cook for fourth Historic car was resolved when Cook lost 12 seconds spinning his Mk1 Escort, leaving Wilcock to maintain the pace in his Opel Manta and grab the position. A worthy Post Historic Group 1 class win and ninth of the 12 Historic cars was taken by the Oxford Universities Motorsport Federation's (OUMF) mid-1960s Riley 1.5. Driven by Ding Boston and co-driven by Ingo Jahn, the venerable BMC machine is well-known to Barbados fans, having now contested some six events on the island.

West Countrymen Bernard Northmore and Peter Brace took Northmore's 1972 Renault 12 Gordini to third in the Post Historic Group 1 class at the RallySprint and managed to repair a sheared alternator bracket in time to complete their rally, second in class to the OUMF Riley.

Praise came from all competitors for this inaugural Historic Rally Carnival; some comments that more stage distance and variation would be better next year will be taken into account for the 2011 event.

Jimmy McRae echoed the feelings of all at the rally's close-to-midnight finish, when he said: "I tell you, I certainly know I've driven the stages we've done! It's been a great event and it would be really good to come back next year and go for the overall win. . . in fact, Greg has already invited us and we've been making plans!"

Obviously, a great time was had by all!

Full details are at: http://www.barbadosrallycarnival.com