Jamaica’s Jeff Panton, who won the Barbados Rally2 Championship in 2023, and reigning champion Josh Read will drive Ford Fiesta Rally2s for the rest of the season. Panton’s Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo has been sold to Suleman Esuf, who returns to the FIA R5 class, while confirmation of entries for Stan Hartling and son Ben further increases the record number in the category for BCIC Rally Barbados to 20.

Following round one at the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Shakedown Stages last month, the Barbados Motoring Federation’s (BMF) first National Championship resumes with First Citizens King of the Hill (May 25). Combined with the following weekend’s BCIC RB25 (May 30-June 1), split into two qualifying rounds, these two marquee events represent just under half of the points available for the season.

Panton’s company Kingston Industrial Garage (KIG) is the oldest Ford dealership outside the USA, founded in 1908, and he enjoyed a stellar 15-year career campaigning the brand from 2008. An ex-Colin McRae Ford Focus WRC00 was followed by an ex-Marcus Gronholm WRC06, then Fiesta WRC and Fiesta R5. With four back-to-back wins in KotH (2016-19) and Rally Barbados (2015-18), he is also the only driver to have won all the region’s ‘Big Three’, on gravel in Jamaica and Trinidad and tarmac in Barbados.

Of his return to the blue oval with co-driver Mike Fennell Jnr after just over two years in the Skoda, Panton says: “Running a 117-year-old Ford dealership in Jamaica means Ford isn’t just a brand to us, it’s part of our DNA. So when it comes to rallying, there’s only one badge we truly belong behind.

“With the recent developments in the Fiesta Rally2, we knew it was time. Time to go back to our roots. Time to bring Ford back to the stages where it belongs. Rally Barbados won’t be easy, we’ve got a lot of work ahead. But we’re fired up, fully committed, and ready to give it everything to keep the Ford name flying high in Caribbean rallying.”

Read and co-driver Mark Jordan missed this year’s opening Rally2 round while the switch of cars was being finalised but, with the new car now in the island, he says: “I’m hoping to take part in the Test Event on May 11, to get chance to drive the car, also to shake off some rust, as it has been around six months since I’ve driven. I have some new sponsors lined up and I’m looking forward to getting started.”

Since buying the Skoda, Esuf has switched his BCIC RB25 entry from SuperModified 2, where he was going to drive his new Millington Diamond-engined Ford Escort MkII. Esuf explains: “It has been a really tough choice between the Escort and the Skoda for Rally Barbados. When I sold my last Skoda evo, I was looking to buy a different car, but that fell through, then the opportunity to own Panton’s car came up so I decided to get some seat time in that. The plan going forward is I’d like to spend more time in the Rally2 and do the occasional speed event in the Escort.” Esuf’s co-driver will be Asif Suleman.

The Hartling family, representing the Turks & Caicos Rally Team alongside Paul Horton, return to Rally Barbados for the first time since 2022. Father Stan first contested the event in a BMW M3 in 2014, going on to finish 13th overall and win Modified 3 in 2019 before switching to a Ford Fiesta R5. He repeated his overall position in 2022, his only full season in the car, since when he has rallied only three times. For BCIC RB25, the Irish multiple championship winning co-driver Martin Brady will be on the notes.

It is Brady’s second visit to Rally Barbados, having sat with Hartling’s son Ben in 2022 in a matching Fiesta R5, when they retired with suspension failure. For Ben, who first competed in the island in 2018 in a Citroen C2R2 MAX, 2022 in was his only full season, having rallied only once since. His co-driver will be experienced local Dwayne Forde. Ben’s younger brother Sam will also compete this year, driving a BimmaCup in Clubman with co-driver Kevin-Jon Manning.