News

Nearly 80 local competitors will share centre stage with former F1 World Champion Jenson Button, 2017 Le Mans class-winner Will Stevens and 2014 European Le Mans Series Champion Oliver Webb on Saturday (October 14) at Bushy Park Barbados as the St Philip facility hosts the island’s second Festival of Speed. Highlights will include Button racing against a Twister aerobatic plane around the 2.01-kilometre circuit, while Stevens and Webb will take part in the Super Cars demonstrations.

The Twister Aerobatics Team, one of the star turns packing the eight-hour schedule for Saturday’s (October 14) Barbados Festival of Speed, will give the island a preview of the action tomorrow (Wednesday), with two spectacular air displays in their 180mph Silence SA1100 aircraft. In their first-ever display in the Americas, they will fly from Bushy Park Barbados to Cave Hill, then back along the south coast at noon and 6.00pm.

The Barbados Association of Dragsters & Drifters (BADD) attracted the largest-ever entry in its seven-year history when 54 competitors faced the starter at Bushy Park on August 20. Many of the racers in Launch Control: Round 3 were newcomers, who made the transition from the extremely-successful Practice Day run on the previous Sunday, while all eight class-winners from Round 2 in May had taken advantage of BADD’s generous offer of free entry for Round 3.

President of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) Jean Todt heaped praise on the island’s motor sport fraternity shortly before he left Barbados on Tuesday (August 8) after a one-day visit in his capacity as the United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety. Speaking to the media at Bushy Park, he said: “In Barbados, a small country of less than 300,000 population, there are a lot of skilled people with energy and passion, which makes me very happy.”