Class Result at Barbados King of the Hill

Ballyclare’s Glen Campbell has travelled half way around the world with his potent Nissan Micra rally car to contest next weekend’s Sol Rally Barbados. With Donaghadee’s Jonathan MacDonald navigating, they have joined a host of British and Irish crews that have shipped their vehicles more than 4,000 miles for what is the largest annual sporting event in the Caribbean.

While the rally cars left home a few weeks ago, heading to Barbados via Portsmouth, Glen and Jonathan boarded their flight for Barbados just last week. With temperatures hovering around the 30 degrees Celsius/86 degrees Fahrenheit mark (day and night), they spent a few days becoming accustomed to the heat before jumping into their Micra.

Motorsport events in the Caribbean work a little different to rallies at home, particularly when it comes to seeding entrants for a rally. Instead of organisers taking their best guesses at where a competitor should be seeded based on their past results, at the Sol Rally Barbados, organisers lay on a hill climb the week before the event. The hill climb results determine where competitors are seeded in the rally!

Known as the Sol Go Further/Scotiabank King of the Hill, competitors tackled the hill climb on Sunday 3 June. Teaming up for the first time, the partnership of Campbell and MacDonald proved to be a successful one as they claimed second in class with their 1300cc Motorcare backed Micra.

After a solid start to the day, they went 13 seconds faster on their second run over the hill. With literally thousands of enthusiastic spectators watching the action unfold on the stage, some suspension tweaks to the Micra helped the crew progress through the field.

A final run through the test saw them better their time once again, ensuring the Burn Road Trade Sales sponsored crew sealed second in class.

“We had a great run,” Campbell said afterwards. “I was a little bit worried about the car as she was off a cylinder when we left the garage in Bridgetown but she performed faultlessly through the stage.”

“We made a few tweaks to the suspension after the first run,” Campbell added, “and that helped settle the car down. I’m pleased with the result – now I’m looking forward to next weekend’s Sol Rally Barbados when the action really gets underway!”

The Sol Rally Barbados starts in earnest on Saturday 9 June. Competitors will tackle 12 stages before the overnight halt, with action resuming on Sunday 10 June for another 10 stages.

Crews will cover a total of 122 competitive kilometres during the two-day event. The Campbell Motorsport crew of Glen Campbell and Jonathan MacDonald can be followed on iRally.com during the course of the weekend, or on the official event website at www.rallybarbados.bb.