Local drivers will get a chance to compete for a place in the Ultimate Showdown of the inaugural Top Gear Festival Barbados on May 17 and 18 at Bushy Park.
The names of the Barbadian drivers are yet to be finalised, but it should set the tone for hot laps by Mercedes AMG Petronas and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton as he christens the newly renovated track, the head-to-head battle of iconic Ferrari cars and a Supercar showdown.
In the challenge of all challenges Hamilton, one of the F1 title favourites this year, will drive a road-going Mercedes AMG in his race against Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond, who will be taking on one of the fiercest competitors in the world and the winner of this year’s Malaysian, Bahrain and Chinese Grands Prix.
A classic F1 pursuit will see the 1984 Toleman that was driven by the late Ayrton Senna and the 1989 Camel Lotus Judd of the 1980s F1 era competing for honours in a head-to-head battle, as well as facing off against Group B Rally pursuit cars.
The festival will open with drift demonstrations, burnouts and donuts by Team Japspeed, the official drifting partner featuring drivers including drifting hero and pop music star Shane Lynch from Boyzone, power laps by “The Stig”and a Le Mans pursuit, in addition to a showdown of three British supercars in a three-lap race.
A Red Bull RallyCross warm-up and the high-octane blood-racing BAC Mono, the second fastest legal production car ever to go around the Top Gear test track, will take to the track at the Bushy Park circuit during the opening day’s action.
Top Gear Festival Barbados will bring some of the quickest, fastest and most sophisticated rally cars ever built to the Group B Rally Car Showdown.
