Three regular competitors from the R5 Rally Championship presented by First Citizens travelled north this month to compete in the fifth edition of the Martinique Rallye Tour (July 21-23). Jamaica’s Jeff Panton and Mike Fennell Jnr finished second in their Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo, Rob Swann third in his Fabia R5 alongside local co-driver Ludovic Kancel, while Paul Horton of the Turks & Caicos Rally Team was fourth in his Citroen C3 Rally 2 with regular co-driver Matt Edwards.

All three cars are run by Bushy Park-based Pro Auto Works, whose boss Brett Judd and crew supervised the shipping of the cars and service barge by ferry and then supported the teams on the French island.

For Panton, it was a return visit – he finished second in his Ford Focus WRC in 2018 to Simon Jean-Joseph’s Citroen DS3 WRC – but for Horton and Swann it was a new experience. The event was won by French crew Steeven Orosemane and Jowann Melgire (DS3 R5), who had won the first MRT in 2016 and placed third behind Panton in 2018. Jean-Joseph, who claimed a hat-trick of wins in the next three events, retired after an accident this year.

The winning crew claimed seven stage wins, Panton five and Swann two, while Thomas and Aurélie Badel also won two early stages when disputing the lead with Orosemane before they retired their Renault Clio Williams with a broken control arm. Swann enjoyed himself: “Martinique was fantastic. I missed having Darren Garrod co-driving, but Ludo from Guadaloupe did a good job given the language barrier! We won a couple of stages and I couldn’t do much more than that under the circumstances. The stages are great and organisation fantastic and all were very welcoming.”

The R5 Rally Championship presented First Citizens resumes next month, with the Motoring Club Barbados Inc’s Rally of the Sun & Stars, which is scheduled for Saturday, September 9.