[1]Carter’s Pit-Stop Stages opens 2018 BRC season
Former Rallycross Champion Andy Scott confirmed today (April 18) that he will drive a newly-acquired Ford Fiesta R5 in Sol Rally Barbados 2018, having had such “a great experience” on his debut last year in a rented Ford Escort MkII. An excited Scott landed in the island yesterday (Tuesday) from his home in Dumfries, Scotland, just 72 hours after the Fiesta arrived at the Bridgetown Port, and will drive the car in anger for the first time in Sunday’s (April 22) Carter’s Pit Stop Stages.
Sol RB18 will run from Friday to Sunday, June 1-3, with The Rally Show and Flow King of the Hill (KotH) the previous weekend, May 26/27. With the entry closing date just nine days away, more than 80 crews are now shown in the on-line entry list on the official web site, rallybarbados.net, with Scott’s Fiesta bringing the 4wd total to 23.
Having won the Fuchs Lubricants Rallycross Open Championship in 2009, Scott was then twice British Rallycross Vice-Champion, in 2011 and 2015, losing the second title in the final round, having run neck-and-neck with eventual Champion Julian Godfrey all season. His European Championship results include a podium in Holland, while he has won the stand-alone Rallycross de Lohéac in France, the MSA British Rallycross Grand Prix and British Championship events at Croft and Knockhill.
Scott is also Team Principal of Albatec Racing, the only team to have successfully competed in British, French, European and World RX; the outfit enjoyed a dream result in round two of the British Championship at Lydden Hill at Easter, with victory in the Final Qualifying Heat, Semi-final and then the Final for the team’s new signing for 2018, multiple rally champion Mark Higgins, himself no stranger to rallying in Barbados.
Scott bought his Fiesta, an early 2017 car, from Pieter-Jan Maeyaert, who drove it to victory in last July’s Motul TBR Rallysprint in his home country Belgium; the car was wrapped to reflect Scott’s sponsorship from Motis, Rock Oil and Teng Tools in the Albatec workshop in Scotland, before being wheeled straight in to the container for shipping to Barbados on the Geest Line freighter Baltic Klipper, which docked on Saturday.
In an exclusive story in the UK’s Motorsport News, published today, Scott said of his visit last year, when local co-driver Rashid Phillips sat with him: “We enjoyed the whole event and the spectators are unbelievable, I’m looking forward to getting back and competing there again. When we were having electrical trouble, a spectator gave us the battery out of his car on the side of the road. They really do get behind you, it’s a great atmosphere and the chance for a holiday at the same time.”
Carter’s Pit-Stop Stages opens 2018 BRC season
The Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) 2018 Driver’s and Class Championships get under way on Sunday (April 22), with the Carter’s Pit Stop Stages. Although the running order will not be published until Thursday evening’s Briefing Meeting, a healthy entry is guaranteed as crews ramp up their preparations for Flow King of the Hill (May 27) and Sol Rally Barbados 2018 (June 1-3).
In addition to Andy Scott’s first competitive appearance in his recently-acquired Ford Fiesta R5, overseas entries already received include the BRC’s current Champion Driver, Jamaica’s Jeff Panton (Ford Focus WRC06) and England’s Rob Swann (Subaru Impreza WRC S12B), George and Anthony Sherman from the United States (GpN Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) and Paul Horton representing the Turks & Caicos Islands in Citroen DS 3 R3 MAX.
Scrutineering for the Carter’s Pit Stop Stages will take place at the sponsor’s Wildey, St Michael, Complex from 3.00pm on Saturday (April 21), with Kendal Plantation Yard, St John, the Service Park and central hub of two loops of five stages on Sunday. In the morning, three runs from Malvern to Wilson Hill (3.50kms) will alternate with two stages between Pool and Society (4.20kms); in the afternoon, the stages will be reversed, three from Society and two from Wilson Hill, although they will be 5.00kms and 4.00kms respectively, adding to the challenge and making for a total distance of 41.90kms. The day will end with a Prizegiving at Kendal.
Sol Rally Barbados and Flow King of the Hill are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 60th Anniversary in 2017; Sol RB18 marks the 11th year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company, and the third by communications provider Flow.
