Panton, Procter sign for Sol Rally Barbados
Jamaica’s Jeffrey Panton, winner of Sol Rally Barbados for the past two years, and Britain’s Kevin Procter are confirmed for this year’s 28th running of the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International. Both look set to be better prepared than last year for the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) blue riband event, where they join island rallying legend and 13-time winner Roger Skeete and UK regular Rob Swann as potential winners.
As the BRC marks its 60th Anniversary, Sol RB17 will run from Friday to Sunday, June 2-4, and Flow King of the Hill, on which the seeding for the main event is based, the previous Sunday (May 28). Since entries opened on October 1 on the official website, www.rallybarbados.net, more than 80 have been posted, two-thirds from overseas.
Last year, Panton had not rallied his Rubis/Sandals Barbados/KIG Ford Focus WRC06 during the six months between winning Rally Jamaica 2015 and Flow King of the Hill, so was very short of seat time. For 2017, however, he has confirmed a full Barbados season, combining BRC events with those of the Motoring Club of Barbados Inc, which kicks off its calendar on Sunday, April 9.
The event’s first regional winner in 1998, in a Toyota Celica GT4 with co-driver John de Mercado, Panton has steadily built a reputation as the region’s most successful driver; last year’s victory with co-driver Mike Fennell Jnr brought his total in Barbados to three. Twice the Caribbean Rally Champion (1996 & ‘98), Panton is unique in having won regional rallying’s ‘Big Three’ – tarmac in Barbados (1998, 2015 & ‘16), gravel in Jamaica (nine times between 1994 and 2015) and Trinidad & Tobago (2011 & ‘13) – and has also finished on the podium in all three for two straight seasons (2012 & ‘13).
Procter had enjoyed even less seat time than Panton last year, having not driven his newly-acquired Procter’s Coaches Ford Fiesta until it arrived in Barbados mid-week between KotH and Sol RB16. Despite a few teething problems, Procter claimed his eighth top ten result, third in WRC-1, with Philip Hopkins on the notes. For Sol RB17, his co-driver will be Andrew Roughead, who will be competing in Barbados for the first time.
In Sol RB15, Procter finally won WRC-2, catering for World Cars built before the end of 2003, in his Subaru Impreza WRC S7, having finished third to Britain’s Roger Duckworth (Impreza WRC S6) and local Toyota dealer Roger Hill (Corolla WRC) in Sol RB13, then second to Duckworth the following year. With a best overall result of fourth (RB09, Impreza), he has also been highest-placed European driver (RB05, Ford Puma Evo 4 x 4) and highest-placed overseas driver (RB04, Ford Escort Cosworth).
While pressure of work has prevented Procter from contesting many UK rallies since last year, he has put those few events to good use, gaining more seat time in the Fiesta: he had a class win on his first gravel outing in the car on the Trackrod Forest Stages in October and won the Neil Howard Memorial Stages at Oulton Park a month later, although he retired from the Christmas Stages at Croft in December with head gasket failure.
Hugely popular with fans for his flamboyant and attacking driving style, Procter was in action back at Croft last Sunday (March 19) in the opening round of the Toyo Tyres MSA British Rallycross Championship, where he finished second to Supercar debutante Nathan Heathcote (Citroen C4), to begin his bid to challenge for a title that has so far eluded him. He said: “We made some really good starts in the first two qualifying races, but the third one was terrible, then the start in the final was disappointing but I’m quite happy with the result and credit to Nathan for winning. If I’d had another lap, I think I could have caught him, but this is a solid start to the year.”