SOL RALLY BARBADOS 2022

At a glance

New for 2022
• Sol RB22 will start from Sol Speightstown on Saturday, crews heading north to the first stage at Pickering in in St Lucy
• for the first time since 2018, crews will need their light pods on Saturday evening as night rallying returns, although Sunday’s K&N/Denso Racing SuperSpecial will be run under the all-arena lighting at Bushy Park Barbados
• every special stage venue enjoys sponsorship from corporate Barbados for the first time since 2012, with Automotive Art, Banks and SMJ Beverages through its Kure brand naming the three closed-road venues
• in addition, First Citizens is the new title sponsor of King of the Hill, which will run on a previously-unused 4.5-kilometre course in St Thomas, finishing at the Vaucluse Raceway
• as more elements of event organisation become non-contact, the Barbados Rally Club has adopted use of the Sportity app, a digital infoboard that keeps all event information in one place and in a structured format for the mutual benefit of competitors and officials. This has been welcomed by British competitors, who already have experience of the system, which was introduced by many organisers to enable the smooth running of events when Covid restrictions were still in place . . .
• since their introduction in 2017, Sol Rally Barbados finisher’s caps have been distributed during the Prizegiving at The Boatyard. In a change for 2022, they will be handed to those crews that are overall finishers at the final Time Control at Bushy Park on Sunday evening . . .

Rally schedule – summary:
• Saturday: nine stages at three venues
• Sunday: nine stages at three venues, followed by the floodlit K&N/Denso Racing SuperSpecial & Rally Finish at Bushy Park Barbados
• total stage distance – 124.20km

Random stats from the provisional entry list:
• 90 crews listed
• participants from 11 countries (including host nation Barbados)
• 68 overseas drivers or co-drivers, 13 new to the event
• 57 local crews
• a near-record number of 21 female competitors (22 in RB18)
• a near-record number of 26 4wd entries (28 in RB15)
• 24 cars from home and overseas new to the event
• cars from 16 manufacturers, BMW best-represented with 26, followed by Ford (25), Toyota (9) and Honda (8)