MCBI Championship opens with two days of action

Island motor sport fans will be heading to St John on Sunday (March 15) to watch more than 50 cars entered for the first closed-road speed event of the season, the Motoring Club Barbados Inc’s (MCBI) Spring Blaze 26. The MCBI Championship opens on Saturday, alongside the BimmaCup BB Double-Header at the Vaucluse Raceway in St Thomas, ending the long winter break with an action-packed weekend.

  Spring Blaze is the first MCBI event since the passing of Competition Secretary and PRO David Stewart, who will be remembered with a minute’s silence during the Driver’s Briefing in the service area at Bushy Park, St Philip, on Sunday morning, along with former competitor and marshal Marville Goodman, who died recently.

  MCBI President David Williams said: “David was a cherished colleague and a true steward of our sport, whose loss is greatly felt as we move into our first season without him for many years. His legacy is woven into the fabric of the MCBI and our officials and volunteers all have a duty to do their very best to live up to the example he set.”

  Sunday’s event is scheduled to start at 10.00am and runs from Kendal Woods to Cherry Grove and reverse, the same course on which Dane Skeete (Subaru Impreza WRC S12) won both directions last year. Skeete is back, hoping to head off a nine-strong Grp-R5 entry, led by the Ford Fiesta Rally2s of last year’s class Champion Josh Read and Jamaicans Kyle Gregg, Jeff Panton and Tarik Minott, who will be joined by Adam Mallalieu, whose car arrived today. In Skoda Fabia Rally2 evos are Brian Gill, who has bought Mark Maloney’s car, Roger Hill and George Sherman of the US, while David Husbands fields the ex-Stan Hartling Fiesta R5 as his Volkswagen Polo is not ready.

  While reigning Champion Driver Kurt Thompson is absent following shoulder surgery during the off-season, Grp-M4 will still be hotly-contested: in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, Thompson’s brother Neil will face the similar cars of newcomers David-Anthony Balgobin and Savio Walcott, both graduated from the BimmaCup, and Jamaica’s most successful global motor sport racer Fraser McConnell, who yesterday confirmed his participation in BCIC Rally Barbados. Aiming to keep the Evos honest is Kyle Catwell in his Audi TT-R.

  Last year’s MCBI SM2 Champion Andrew Jones starts his title defence in his trusty Ford Escort MkII against the similar car of Logan Watson, with Jamaica’s Horatio Brown (Citroen C2), Daryl Clarke (Suzuki Swift RS), Barry Mayers (Ford Fiesta), Nigel Reece (Toyota Starlet) and Rhett Watson (BMW M3) all keen to be near the front.

  Other reigning MCBI class champions kicking off the new season are Edward Corbin (SM1 Daihatsu Charmant), Neil Corbin (M2 Toyota GT-86 CS-R3) and Shawn Brathwaite (C1 Toyota Corolla), while a new Champion will be crowned in Clubman 2 following David-Anthony Balgobin’s move to 4wd.

  The 14-round MCBI Championship, which runs until November, features six Double-Header Speed Events, one each organised by the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) and Vaucluse Raceway Motorsports Club (VRMSC), while single-scoring events are the BRC’s First Citizens King of the Hill and the MCBI’s Rally of the Sun & Stars.

MCBI Championship 2026: Mar 14, Double-Header Sprint (VRMSC); Mar 15, Spring Blaze; May 24, King of the Hill (BRC); Jul 12, Full Throttle; Aug 23, Summer Sprint (BRC); Sep 12, Rally of the Sun & Stars; Oct 11, Run to Winter; Nov 8, HammerTime

For more information, contact David Williams: e-mail draw362@yahoo.com