In the Community

Entries for Sol Rally Barbados 2015 (May 29-31) have surged past 80, with support for the four-wheel-drive classes now representing more than a quarter of the entries received online through the official web site, rallybarbados.net. As the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) celebrates the 25th Anniversary of its first International All-Stage Rally, the overseas interest is at record levels. Trinidad-based Briton Peter Morris is the latest regional entry to be confirmed, at the wheel of his Valvoline Oils and DMack Tyres-backed Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. Having taken a break from rallying in recent years, Morris returned to action towards the end of 2013, after converting his company car into a rally car. Initially, his daughter Hannah was co-driver, before he was reunited with his former partner Lyndon Mohammed, with whom he had enjoyed success in the past. Morris started rallying in 1963 in a Triumph Herald and progressed to the European Rally Championship, contesting events in Europe in a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus in the 1980s, in the years immediately after Talbot had become Manufacturer Champions in the World Rally Championship in 1981. He also competed in the Monte Carlo Rally, the opening round of the WRC, in 1984. Since moving to the Caribbean, Morris has enjoyed success both on land and at sea, as he is also an avid sailor. A regular competitor in the Trinidad & Tobago Rally Club (TTRC) Championship, he has won many awards and also competed in Barbados on a number of occasions, once making the front page of the Barbados Advocate with a big jump in his then Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III. Trinidadian co-driver Mohammed has recently returned to the sport in which he first competed as a 14-year-old in a Ford Escort in the late 1970s. His accolades include winning the TTRC Championship in 1992, finishing ninth in Rally Jamaica in the same year and winning Group 2 in the Caribbean Rally Championship. In addition to his partnership with Morris, he has also sat with Frankie Boodram, Paul Chung, Ian Gibson and John Powell. Nine years ago, when Mohammed withdrew from rallying to pursue further studies, he also started mountain biking although, last year, it went wrong, as he explains: “In March 2014, I broke my arms going downhill. I possibly didn’t realise I had no roll cage. By October, I was back in a rally car with Peter, winning Group A on our first outing, followed up with another class win in November. I’m looking forward to competing on the twisty curves of Rally Barbados.” Sol Rally Barbados and the King of the Hill shakedown event are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which was founded in 1957; Sol RB15 marks the 25th Anniversary of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and the eighth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.