Barbados Today

More than 70 members of the island’s motor sport fraternity were honoured at the Barbados Rally Club’s annual prize-giving ceremony on Friday evening at Sugar Ultra Lounge, St. Lawrence Gap. Almost 120 awards were presented, including return tickets to the United Kingdom, courtesy of Virgin Atlantic, title sponsor of the BRC Drivers and Class Championships.

Among the evening’s awardees were the sport’s volunteers. Long-standing marshals Noel Edwards, Phillip Gooding, Jimmy Hall and David Wood were acknowledged with trophies, while the contribution of another 10 volunteers was noted, including former BRC competition secretary Geoff Goddard. He was presented with an appreciation award by competitors for his work in organising the BRC Autocross Championship.

After an unprecedented three-way tie for the Virgin Atlantic Champion Driver title, modified 6 winner Neil Corbin won the tie-break from Daryl Clarke, who triumphed in modified 7, and Logan Watson, who won both the super-modified 11 class and the BRC Two Wheel Drive Championship. The Four Wheel Drive title was won by Paul Bourne.

In the MudDogs Safari Championship, Wayne Clarke claimed the Sextant Challenge Trophy as champion navigator for the second year in a row, with regular partner Chris Armstrong winning his first champion driver title and the Peter Farmer Memorial Trophy. Nick Branson and Dominic Straker were Chefette novice champion navigator and driver respectively, while Omar Boodhoo completed an impressive hat-trick of Autocross Championship titles.

Club officials thanked the sport’s stakeholders, including marshals, officials, sponsors and the media for contributing to another successful season. During the evening, members were treated to the first public showing of British production company Greenlight TV’s coverage of Sol Rally Barbados 2012, which is scheduled for worldwide broadcast in the coming weeks. Last year’s programme was beamed to 771 million homes in more than 120 countries outside the Caribbean.