Regular readers of Sporting Barbados over the past 20 years or so will by now have registered that the Caribbean, and this island in particular, has a deep-seated cultural affection for the motor car.
The ‘horseless carriage’ arrived here in the early 1900s, when the island’s elite families started to replace the more traditional form of horsepower, at least for social events, like a picnic on the East Coast perhaps.
It took 30 or so years for the first competition to be held—the earliest recorded motor sport event was a hillclimb in 1934—then it was a further two decades before the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) was founded in 1957. Believed to be the island’s oldest club devoted to a sport not involving a ball, it was the first of what are now eight such organisations affiliated to the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF), the sport’s governing body and a key conduit to the Government agencies that support and facilitate events.
If you are a first-time reader, then a couple more factoids: the BMF is one of only 10 National Sporting Authorities affiliated to the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) from a country with a population of less than 1 million, and its President, Senator Andrew Mallalieu, is a member of the FIA World Motor Sport Council, giving the island a voice at motor sport’s global top table. Barbados certainly punches above its weight.
More than 350 Barbadians compete in various motor sport disciplines each year, from grassroots activities such as autocross, karting, and off-road navigational events, to more complex special stage rallies. In its 67th year, the BRC set records for starters (100) and finishers (67) in BCIC Rally Barbados 2024, the 34th edition of its premier event . . . but then 2025 smashed a whole raft of records for participation by overseas competitors.
Among others, those records included: starters, 121 (previous: 100 – 2024); overseas cars, 51 (44 – 2015); overseas drivers and co-drivers, 100 (82 – 2015); local crews, 70 (64 – 2012, 2024), and finishers, 73 (67 – 2024). The event accounted for approaching 5,000 visitor nights at a traditionally quieter time of year, making a contribution of more than Bds $4 million to the island’s economy, much of it in valuable foreign exchange.
These days, rallying is the strongest draw for overseas competitors, having surpassed circuit racing—in the 1970s, Bushy Park internationals attracted crowds estimated at around 10 per cent of the population—but let’s not forget other disciplines. In karting, the BMF Nations Cup at Bushy Park in August hosted teenage stars of the future from Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago as a continuation of the work started with the Caribbean Junior Karting Academy Cup, while a new Endurance Karting event ran in September.
The Cole Clarke Racing Three Hours was the first of five rounds of a rental kart endurance championship, which is planned to culminate in the Caribbean’s first-ever round-the-clock race, the Barbados 24 Hours at Bushy Park in October 2026. While the preliminary events are unlikely to attract overseas participation, there is already interest from karters around the globe for the 24 Hours.
Regional drivers assemble at the Vaucluse Raceway (VRW) each year for the final rounds of the BimmaCup BB and BimmaCup Caribbean Championships. There is always a strong contingent from Antigua, set to be boosted in 2025 with a class for T&T’s Caribbean Spec Miata Series, both groups also set to see action at Bushy Park the following weekend during the second Caterham Caribbean Cup (CCC25).
A varied programme of sprint and endurance racing in CCC23, some under all-arena lighting, attracted more than 40 drivers, their service crew, family and friends, racking up more than 1,200 visitor nights in 10 days. It also marked what was then the largest ever single shipment of competition cars (27) to land at the Bridgetown Port; a record was raised to 35 by the arrivals for BCIC RB25.
Aiming to repeat that success, the British sports car maker was open to expanding the weekend’s programme to include extra events, with the BimmaCups and Miatas set to be joined by 600cc Supersport bikes from Guyana, if Bushy Park Motorsports Inc (BPMSI) and Vaucluse Raceway Motorsport Club (VRMSC) plans came to fruition.
One further event scheduled for the last quarter of the year after this was written was due to further increase the already record number of overseas enthusiasts heading for a dose of Sun, Sea and (motor) Sport in 2025. Brainchild of the Barbados Association of Dragsters & Drifters (BADD), the new Barbados Motor Racing Festival was to run for four days over the Independence weekend at the end of November, a traditional slot for a major motor sport event, dating back 65 years to the early days of Old Bushy Park.
Working with other clubs and organisations, including the Barbados Auto Racing League (BARL), BADD’s ambitious plans catered for circuit racing, drifting and Time Attack, along with a Sound Off—just think everyday cars fitted with woofers and tweeters loud enough to be heard clearly in the next parish—then two days of side-by-side quarter-mile drag racing on a closed section of the Errol Barrow Highway, an appropriate location to remember ‘The Father of Independence’.
Drag racing in the island is on the rise—a record 95 cars started the September event on the Bushy Park eighth-mile—but is still playing catch-up with territories large and small such as Grenada and Trinidad & Tobago. Conceived by the Jamaica Millennium Motoring Club, a new-for-2025 Caribbean Drag Racing Championship further fuelled the flames, as competitors scored points in their local events ahead of the Final in Jamaica in early 2026, with national pride and bragging rights at stake.
Many of the events which attract overseas participation are supported by Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI), which added the branding ‘Motorsport Island’ to its global promotion of the destination during 2022. The value of motor sport as a marketing tool is clear, and not just in a one-off ‘bucket-list’ sense, as repeat visitor statistics show: Andrew Costin-Hurley and Martin Stockdale from the UK, plus Jamaica’s Jeff Panton have all competed in Rally Barbados more than 20 times. Just like the nearly 630 overseas competitors the event has attracted, they bring family and friends, carrying repeat visits into the tens of thousands.
Away from the island, BTMI is a long-term supporter of Barbadian Zane Maloney, who won his first championships with the Barbados Karting Association (BKA) at Bushy Park before he was 10 years old. Pursuing his dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver, he was British F4 Champion in 2019, FIA F3 Vice-Champion in 2022, also FIA Rookie of the Year, and is now in his second season (2025/2026) driving for Lola Yamaha ABT in the high-profile FIA Formula E World Championship for electric single-seaters.
With more than 100,000 followers on his own Instagram page and well over a million more through Formula E’s social platforms, ‘The Boy from Barbados’ is carrying the message of Motorsport Island to a global audience. Perhaps that’s how you came to be here in the first place.