Watson, Skeete the ROC Bajans

Article by Trevor Thorpe

Rhett Watson and Dane Skeete make up Team Barbados for next month’s Race Of Champions (ROC) on December 13 and 14 at the Bushy Park circuit.

The two defeated a short list of 20 drivers in the finals of the Suzuki Rocks Barbados Challenge at Bushy Park last Sunday, which was made up of five on-track challenges against the clock, including the first use of the new ROC Skills Challenge Course, and an online poll.

Watson, the 2014 Barbados Rally Club champion driver, ended with 221 points while Skeete, a former karting champion, had 167 complied against drivers drawn from across the motor sport disciplines run under the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF).

Watson and Skeete will represent Team Barbados twice over ROC weekend. Their first outing will be the ROC Nations Cup, where they will face champions from around the world, while ROC Caribbean will be a head-to-head competition against two-driver teams from Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

One driver from Barbados and one from the wider Caribbean will then qualify for the individual Race Of Champions on December 14, where they will race against champions from across the world.

These include NASCAR champion Kurt Busch; reigning ROC champion of champions Lotus Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean; nine-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Tom Kristensen; World Touring Car champion José Maria ‘Pechito’ López; Indy500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay; FIA Rallycross champion Petter Solberg; V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup and the ROC’s first female competitor and Williams test driver, Susie Wolff.

Team Guyana is Kristian Jeffrey and Mark Vieira; Team Jamaica is Doug ‘Hollywood’ Gore and Jeff ‘Fudgie’ Panton while Franklyn Boodram and David Coelho will comprise Team Trinidad and Tobago.

Keen competition is expected and Race Of Champions director Fredrik Johnsson, who was at Bushy Park last Sunday, congratulated Watson and Skeete on making the Barbados team.