Roger “The Sheriff” Skeete, the most decorated local rallyist, will lead the Barbados team in Sol Rally Barbados 2014.
Partnered by regular co-driver Louis Venezia in the Sol/Simpson Motors/Michelin Subaru Impreza WRC S12, Skeete will be in “maximum attack mode”, targeting his 13th victory in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) event.
“We need to return to maximum attack mode from stage one and see who can sustain the pace . . . and stay on the road. Therefore, there will be more focus on quicker stage times, as opposed to just staying with the leaders,” Skeete said.
After their dismal showing last year when they suffered six stalls on the start line, the pair will be eager to erase the memories of that event and return to the results of 2010 and 2011 when they found winner’s row.
Speaking after submitting his entry on the BRC’s website, Skeete said they would be making a special effort to deliver the very best showing in the rally, after last year’s dismal effort with no fewer than six stalls on the start line between day one and two.
Skeete has an enviable record in the BRC’s international event, having 12 victories including hat-tricks in the event’s first three years, 1990, 1991 and 1992; then a decade later in 2000, 2001 and 2002. In addition, he is one of only two drivers, Roger Hill being the other, to have contested all 24 previous events.
However, it will not be plain sailing for Skeete and Venezia as Britain’s Rob Swann is stepping up to the WRC-1 class in his recently acquired Impreza WRC S11.
With three months left before entries close, overall entries for the event have reached 70, with nearly 20 from competitors who will be seeing action in Barbados for the first time.
Double winner Paul Bird and co-driver Aled Davies, Jamaica’s Jeff “Fudgie” Panton and Mike Fennell Jr are already entered for the event scheduled for May 31 and June 1, with scrutineering and Scotiabank King Of The Hill on May 24 and 25.
