Karting

The Caribbean will be represented in the CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy for the first time when reigning Barbados Karting Association (BKA) Junior Champion Adam Mallalieu makes his debut on the international stage at Salbris in France this weekend (May 3-6). The 14-year-old Harrison College student joins 50 other rising stars from 40 countries hoping to follow in the wheel-tracks of 2011 Academy Champion Charles Leclerc, who scored his first points in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship last Sunday (April 29) when he finished sixth for Sauber in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.

The Barbados Association of Dragsters & Drifters (BADD) and Bushy Park Motor Sports Inc (BPMSI) both kick off their 2018 championships at Bushy Park Barbados later this month, as the domestic motor sport season moves into a higher gear. And there’s good news for non-competitors as well, as circuit management confirms that the night-time Karting Experience comes on stream next week, with plans also in the pipeline for a new Off-Road Karting location.

Jim ‘Jimbob’ Mark is heading to the 2018 United States Grand Prix for a once-in-a-lifetime trip as the first Bushy Park Barbados Karting Experience Champion. He won last Saturday’s (February 3) Top Ten Race-Off, in a competition he described as “genius”; Cody Foster finished second and Chris McFarlane third, out of approaching 100 hopefuls who had raced on the new track layout.

Lifetime Achievement Awards recognise members’ contributions

Six decades of motor sport were celebrated on Saturday evening (February 3) when the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) combined its Annual Prizegiving at Mahogany Ridge, St Thomas, with a celebration of its 60th Anniversary, reached in 2017. The outstanding contributions of four long-standing members were rewarded with Lifetime Achievement Awards, while a number of the Club’s commercial partners were also recognised, along with the marshals, medical support teams and the media.

As the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF) prepares for this weekend’s start of the 2018 motor sport season, it does so without long-standing Vice-President John Sealy, who has retired. In a heartfelt tribute to the former VP, BMF President Andrew Mallalieu acknowledged that “replacing John with just one person is impossible”, so there will be some changes in the BMF structure.