Lori-Ann Glasgow, General Manager, Marketing, BCIC delivers remarks at the Media Briefing for BCIC RB24. Listening, from left, are Event Director Neil Barnard, Claire Jordan, CEO of First Citizens Bank Barbados, title sponsor of King of the Hill for the third year, and Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc’s (BTMI) Sports Manager Kamal Springer.
The provisional entry list for the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international lists more than 100 local, regional and international rally crews for only the second time in its 34-year history. With a new title sponsor, BCIC Rally Barbados 2024 has attracted 103 entries, the most in 12 years, including the first Volkswagen Polo GTi R5 to compete in the island, being flown in by returning Irish driver Barry McKenna.
The entry list was revealed at a Media Briefing in the Open-Air Suites at Bushy Park Barbados on Friday (May 10), along with a major shake-up of the event format, flipping the traditional Saturday north/Sunday south running order. BCIC RB24 (May 31-June 2) is the 34th edition of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event which has its roots in the International All-Stage Rally of 1990. The Rally Show and First Citizens King of the Hill (KotH) will be staged on May 25 and 26.
McKenna’s entry is one of the last four confirmed today (May 10), along with Jersey’s Darryl Morris who will campaign the Skoda Fabia R5 formerly driven by Britain’s Rob Swann, bringing the entry in the FIA R5 class to 15. Both McKenna, a regular podium finisher in rallies in North America, and Morris last competed in the island in Ford Escort MkIIs, McKenna third in the Sunday Cup in 2016, Morris 17th overall and second in SuperModified 2 in 2019.
Two further entries from Ireland are also confirmed, bringing the number of overseas drivers and co-drivers entered to 65, 15 of them new to the event: returnee Martin Donnelly brings a MkII Escort following earlier visits with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo XI and Toyota Corolla WRC, and newcomer Gary Smith has a Honda Civic.
BCIC RB24 will open with two floodlit stages at Bushy Park Barbados on the Friday night (May 31), either side of a run through nearby Featherbed Lane. Saturday’s nine stages will be at three high-speed venues in the south-east of the island and Sunday’s on the more technical stages in the north, with the Final Stage and Rally Finish at the Vaucluse Raceway. While the venues are familiar, there have been tweaks to layout, direction or distance at all of them since last year.
At the Briefing Meeting, BCIC RB24 Event Director Neil Barnard was joined on the top table by Lori-Ann Glasgow, General Manager, Marketing BCIC, Claire Jordan, CEO of First Citizens Bank Barbados, title sponsor of King of the Hill for the third year, and Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc’s (BTMI) Sports Manager Kamal Springer.
Barnard said: “We are so grateful for the support of all our sponsors and partners and I am so excited to welcome our new title sponsor BCIC. It would be remiss of me not to thank Sol who have partnered with the Club and the event for several years. Huge thanks to our King of The Hill sponsor, First Citizens, for their enthusiasm and willingness to support and embrace the sport, Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc, the Tourism Development Corporation, also Bushy Park Barbados, where we are sitting now, for their commitment to this event.”
For BCIC, Lori-Ann Glasgow said: “Our milestone partnership with Rally Barbados is a bold statement of BCIC’s commitment to innovation and pushing boundaries. We are not just challenging the status quo; we are redefining it! We have never partnered with an event quite like this, but in the seven years we have been in Barbados, we know how much Rally Barbados means to Bajans.”
First Citizens CEO Claire Jordan said: “Motorsport in Barbados is more than a sporting competition, given its popularity with the crowds, it’s more a cultural and community event, bringing people together in a spirit of camaraderie. This is what is makes it so unique! We look forward to an exciting King of the Hill.”
Citing the extensive global coverage and economic impact on the event, the BTMI’s Kamal Springer said: “We look forward to keep supporting this event for a long time.”
Barnard added: “Rallying cannot happen without the cooperation of the people of Barbados. We know that every year we attract hundreds of competitors and fans to our island and there are thousands of local rally fans that come out to watch the action, but we must respect the people and communities that we rally within. That respect and cooperation is essential to the sustainability of our sport.”
BCIC Rally Barbados (May 31-June 2) is a tarmac rally with around 20 special stages run on the island’s intricate network of public roads, under road closure orders granted by the Ministry of Transport, Works & Water Resources; the previous Sunday’s (May 26) First Citizens King of the Hill sprint, run under a similar arrangement, features four timed runs on a roughly four-kilometre stage, the results of which are used to seed the running order for the main event.