The outstanding contributions of four long-standing members, along with the marshals, medical support teams, the media and a number of the club’s commercial partners took centre stage as the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) celebrated six decades of motor sport in Barbados.
The occasion was the club’s annual prize giving ceremony at Mahogany Ridge, St Thomas, and combined with a celebration of its 60th anniversary, reached in 2017.
Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to Biddy Barber, John Corbin, John Sealy and Roger Skeete.
Barber first joined the club as a teenager and has been a constant presence as a competitor, marshal and organiser, as well as a pioneer in the representation of women in motor sport.
Corbin was recognised as a passionate supporter of club motor sport and inspiration to the younger generation, while Sealy was a committee member from 1962, club chairman in the 1980s, clerk of the course at Bushy Park in the 1970s and 1990s and now a trustee.
Sealy also received an award from Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF) president Andrew Mallalieu to mark his recent retirement as BMF vice-president.
Skeete was honoured for being a relentless competitor and catalyst of the competitive environment, and for his outstanding individual achievements.
New champion driver Jeff Panton, who missed the ceremony because he was away on business, was one of the night’s big winners from the 2017 Driver’s and Class Championships.
In addition, he was rewarded for being the first overseas competitor to win the champion driver trophy.
Panton was also the WRC and four-wheel drive champion and was also awarded the club’s annual tongue-in-cheek Golden Turkey Award, presented to acknowledge some lapse on the part of the competitor and, in his case, a heart-stopping moment, when he struck a wall on the Padmore Stage in the closing stages of Sol Rally Barbados last year.
Hometown boy Andrew Jones, who was second in the overall standings with a career-best result, also won SuperModified 3, while co-driver Lindsey Pilkington won the Highest-placed Female Co-driver Award for the fourth straight year.
Clubman 2 class-winner Stuart Garcia finished third overall and also collected the Rookie Award and an Automotive Art voucher for $1 000, while Barry Mayers, who was fourth overall, was crowned the two-wheel drive champion.
Stuart McChlery won the Richard Roett Trophy and was also voted the season’s most spectacular driver by the media. He was presented with a framed image of his venerable Ford Escort MkI, first raced competitively by his parents nearly 40 years ago.
In the Chefette MudDogs Safari Championship, Chris O’Neal won the Sextant Challenge Trophy as champion navigator for the fifth year in a row.
Leslie Alleyne won an eighth champion driver title and took home the Peter Farmer Memorial Trophy.
George and Garry Mendes won the new Shelbury Construction Trophy for MudDogs Driver Challenges, while Jamaica’s Christopher “Teach” McFarlane won the Autocross title for the third straight year. Tristan Gibbs took the first lien on the new two-wheel drive championship category.
Automotive Art, Banks Holdings, Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc., Chefette Restaurants, Flow, Simpson Motors and Sol (Barbados) Ltd were presented with Partner Awards. (TT)
