Forty fans to follow Irish Ford duo to BCIC RB26

When Irish rally champions Seamus Kelly and Barry McLaughlin arrive for BCIC Rally Barbados 2026 (May 29-31), they will bring more than 40 friends and family from Ireland and around the region, one of the largest support groups in the event’s history.
 Kelly Motorsport team patron Seamus lived and worked in St Kitts & Nevis for 20 years, became a citizen and married a local girl, Kenya, now parents of daughter Harper. The head offices of the Kelly Group, with interests in construction, development, farming and tourism, are in Basseterre, capital of the twin-island nation, which is around 360 miles to the north-west of Barbados.
 A 26-strong group from Ireland will arrive ahead of First Citizens King of the Hill (May 24), with 16 more flying in from Antigua and St Kitts for the following BCIC RB26 weekend. With a mix of hotels and villas booked months ago and rental cars and MPVs, this one group represents approaching 350 visitor nights, emphasising the event’s value in the island’s sports-tourism mix.
 The team will field two Ford Escorts prepared by McLaughlin Motorsport. Prep company boss Barry will drive a MkI with co-driver Barry McBride in the Modified 2 class, while Kelly and co-driver Pauric McGinley are looking forward to their first outing in a new-build MkII, which slots into Modified 1.
 Both won regional championship titles in Ireland last year. In his first year of competition, Kelly started and finished nine events, including the three-day Donegal International Rally, winning his class in the National and West Coast Championships.
 In addition to his car-building skills, McLaughlin has been a driver since 2012, when he started in a Toyota Corolla in. Reunited a few years ago with Barry McBride, his co-driver of the early 2010s, he won his class in the Border Rally and West Coast Championships last year, claimed his second class win in the Donegal International 10 years after his first, and won the Donegal Motor Club’s Hard Charger of the Year award.
 Kelly says: “Having lived in the region, I’ve been following Rally Barbados for years and now finally get the chance to compete. Our shipping logistics guy is Roger McMahon, a long-time supporter of our team, whose father Derek ‘Big D’ McMahon and Alec Poole raced in Barbados in the 1970s, so it’s exciting to follow through that historic link.”
 BCIC RB26 Event Director Neil Barnard said: “I can honestly say that when I’ve heard the phrase ‘the Irish are coming’ over the years that I cannot help but smile. We love having ALL of them here - competitors, friends, family and supporters. Knowing that this group already have long-standing connections around the region is a real bonus as we work to forge ever closer links with other islands.”

BCIC Rally Barbados (May 29-31, 2026) is a tarmac rally with around 20 special stages run on the island’s intricate network of public roads, under road closure orders granted by the Ministry of Transport, Works & Water Resources; King of the Hill (May 24), run under a similar arrangement, features four timed runs on a roughly four-kilometre stage, with the results used to seed the running order for the main event.