McKenna changes to legendary Starlet for BCIC RB25

A late change of car confirmed late last night (Friday) for Ireland’s Barry McKenna has added extra spice to the much anticipated 2wd battle in BCIC RB25. The New York based former American Rally Champion has switched from the Volkswagen Polo GTi R5 he campaigned last year to fellow-countryman Declan Gallagher’s legendary Toyota Starlet.
  BCIC RB25, the Caribbean’s biggest motor sport international, will run from Friday, May 30 to Sunday, June 1. The Auto & Rally Show, where every car entered is on display in an annual celebration of island rallying, and the final shakedown and seeding event, First Citizens King of the Hill, fill the previous weekend (May 24/25).
  With six rally wins over two seasons, McKenna finished runner-up in the American Rally Association Championship in 2021, then won the title the following year, in a mix of S2000T and WRC Ford Fiestas. On his return to Barbados for the first time since 2016, he set eight top 10 times in BCIC RB24 in the first Polo R5 seen in the island and finished second in the Sunday Cup after running off the road on Saturday’s first Kendal stage and dropping out of the overall running.
  Arguably the most famous Starlet in Ireland, it has been driven since 2008 by multiple class and overall champion Gallagher, aka ‘The Milkman’ (he helped with his father’s milk round in Ardara, Co Donegal, as a schoolboy and the nickname stuck.) With regular overall wins, podium finishes and approaching 40 class wins to its name, it is justifiably a legend. McKenna says: “It’s fast! Hopefully I can drive it that fast.”
  Powered by a 2.5-litre Vauxhall 16v engine, it will run in SuperModified 2, which is once again the event’s best-subscribed class with 23 entries following McKenna’s late change, balancing out Suleman Esuf’s decision to switch from his Ford Escort MkII to the ex-Jeff Panton R5 Skoda. Irish Championship-winning Andy Hayes will co-driver, as he did in BCIC RB24 and also in a number of events during McKenna’s American successes.
  McKenna’s opposition will include two-time European Champion Simon Jean-Joseph in a Porsche 991 GT3 in addition to the island’s home-grown stars, six of whom have driven off with the top 2wd trophy in the last six years, Barry Mayers the last to win back-to-back trophies in 2017 & ’18 in his rwd Ford Fiesta.

Rally Barbados 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; the previous Sunday’s King of the Hill ‘shakedown’, 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.

For media information only. No regulatory value.

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