Leslie Alleyne and Chris O’Neal returned to winning ways in the very recent March Safari, the first of five rounds of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) 2025 Chefette MudDogs Safari Championship which will test the skills of the Club’s off-road navigational rallying fraternity between now and November.

With their POD Store/Maxxis/Lucky Locks/Flying Fish Sportswear Suzuki Jimny sporting a new livery for this year’s campaign, they incurred 344 penalty points over the 95-kilometre route, beating Ben Norris and Kirk Watkins (Jeep Rubicon) by a healthy margin of 264. Reigning champions Simon Parravicino and Andrew Croney in the Realtors Ltd/Serenity Pest Control Jeep Wrangler finished third, a further 60 penalties adrift.

After winning the first three events last year, the multiple champions had faltered, so Alleyne was delighted with Sunday’s result: “New year, new Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 inspired livery, and new luck! Hopefully we will continue on this trajectory. Thanks to Wayne and David for putting together a challenging and interesting route, which was quite picturesque at times, especially along the trainline in Consett Bay and Bath.”

Following the Drivers’ Briefing from route-setters Wayne Clarke and David Reece, the 10 crews left Ace H & B Hardware, Warrens, at 8.00am heading through St Michael and St George to a lunch-time rest stop at the vendors market at Six Roads, St Philip.

After the break, the afternoon route carried crews across St Philip into St John and the finish at Colleton Plantation. There were two regularity tests within the route and a fun test at the finish, which required each crew to remove and replace a wheel, also wash the two front doors of their vehicle, all against the clock.

Alleyne added: “A huge thanks must go out to all the marshals that came out to run a very smooth event. Hopefully we will start to build on our competitor base and have a really encouraging 2025, which already has route setters in place for all the events. Thank you to my longtime friend, Darrin White, for his continued support with Pod Store, Lucky Lock and Flyin’ Fish Sportswear. Also to Quality Tyre and Maxxis, who have supported me for more years than I can remember!”

Having missed out twice last year, each time by around just 20 penalty points, Alexander Gill and Chelsea Clarke finally claimed their first win in Class B in their Isuzu D-Max. They won both the morning and afternoon routes by comfortable margins to finish fourth overall, more than 900 penalties ahead of the Mitsubishi Pajero iO of Chelsea’s sister Rebecca, currently the only female driver in MudDogs events, and navigator Austin Barber.

Tyrone Chase and Sameisha Williams (Suzuki Vitara) finished third in Class B, seventh overall, while the reigning class champions George Mendes and Leslie Evanson had a bad day at the office. After one or two issues with G&G Sales and Service Vitara, they ran late, incurring penalties, so started their title defence fourth in class.

After the Prizegiving last week at Savvy on the Bay, Carlisle Bay, Bridgetown, MudDogs Chairman Ricky Holder said: “Everyone had a good time, so thanks to our route-setters, also Ace H & B Hardware for hosting the start and supplying some prizes.”