PRESIDENT?of the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF)?Andrew Mallalieu has underscored the importance of Barbados in steering the path of motor sport in the region.
“Barbados is certainly punching above its weight in helping to set the direction for both mobility and sport in the region,” said Mallalieu.
He was speaking after he was re-elected as the representative for the 23 clubs in 16 countries, including the United States, on the Rallies Commission of the world governing body for motorsport, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). It was at the annual general assembly in Paris, France.
BMF vice-president John Sealy was re-elected to the 24-strong World Council for Automobile Mobility and Tourism (WCAMT) for the next four years, representing FIA Mobility Region III, which includes Jamaica, Mexico, North America and Trinidad and Tobago.
During the high-level session, Mallalieu was involved in the bi-annual meeting of Formula 1 stewards, chaired by FIA deputy president Graham Stoker and attended by F1 race director Charlie Whiting and former Grand Prix driver Derek Warwick.
Founded in 2001, the BMF is the governing body of motor sport in Barbados, and is one of only ten FIA member countries with a population of less than one million.
While the BMF concentrated on local motor sport issues in its early years, its importance outside the island’s shores has steadily grown.
“The work of the BMF, its committee and its member clubs continues to bear fruit,” Mallalieu said.
“In our first 13 years of operation, the BMF has successfully introduced a shared calendar agreed [among] all the clubs, a structured training programme for officials and volunteers and now manages a duty free scheme for the benefit of competitors.
“The redeveloped Bushy Park offers a huge opportunity for island motor sport to move to a whole new level, and to play a significant role on the international stage, not only for Barbados, but also the wider Caribbean.
“Discussions are already on-going with race promoters around the world with the aim of hosting significant international events at Bushy Park in 2014 and 2015,” he added.
In addition to sitting on the Rallies Commission, Mallalieu has been an FIA steward at rounds of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
Among the decisions reached was a determination to pursue consistency in decision-making during grands prix, considered to be at the heart of maintaining credibility.
The review of the 2013 season followed a meeting earlier in the year, at which stewards and Whiting met drivers and team representatives, who highlighted a number of key issues they believed would help stewards reach their goal of uniformity in decision-making.
“A great deal of work in these areas has already been done in Barbados, but the FIA’s plans to encourage greater co-operation between ASNs [local federations] and to appoint regional co-ordinators will result in the sharing of ideas to the benefit of all,” said Sealy.
During the assembly, attended by representatives from more than 130 countries, Jean Todt, who visited Barbados last August, was voted in for a second four-year term as FIA president.
