These memories are now more than 50 years old and are somewhat murky, so forgive any oversights or errors you may find. In fact any additions or corrections would be welcomed and much appreciated.

In the early 1970s, a bunch of Strathclyde boys including James Carter, Geoffrey Parkinson, Andrew Rodriguez, Bernard (Buns) Corbin and myself [Mike Spence], developed the usual interest in fast cars, motorbikes and mud that most boys of that era got, around the time they got their driver’s license.

We also had a number of Barbados Rally Club members in Strathclyde at that time, such as James’s elder brother Richard Carter, Ralph Branch, Tommy Bentley, Willy Hassell and Heinz Meyer who often participated in BRC rally’s and speed events.

We would regularly go to watch the various Hill Climb events and Dexterity Tests put on by the Rally Club and became familiar with all the big name rally teams and speed event drivers at the time like Allamby & Mahon, Cummings & Rose, Barnard & Bain, the Watkins brothers, Andrew Phillips, Ralph “Bruggadung” Johnson, Michael Gill and many, many more.

At that time James was driving his mother’s Volkswagen and I remember regularly going up to Society Plantation in St. John, where his cousin David Reece lived at the time. David also had a dune buggy and it was not long before the two of them would go speeding through the cart roads, practicing control on loose dirt and mud. I was always a passenger, but loved it anyway. Great sport. Eventually, James acquired the Datsun SSS previously owned by his brother Richard, and that gave us a whole new dimension of power, speed and handling.

In those days it was not easy for young upstarts to get into the Rally Club. You had to be sponsored and then voted in, and of course there was the membership fees that were out of reach for young men just starting out on their first job, or in my case still in school. James had just started working at Business Machines in Bridgetown where through a coworker, Mike Edghill, he was put in touch with Johnny DeFreitas who was organizing small weekend fun rallys for a group of friends. We went on a couple of them where I got my first taste of BRC navigating, using the 1:50,000 Ordnance Survey map. There would be only about 5 or 6 cars and we’d go for a couple hours, then end up at someone’s house where the drinking and old talk about who got lost or who got stuck up carried on, often venturing into some hilarious territory. The people I remember mostly from those early days were Johnny DeFreitas, Jerry Seale, Dads Goddard, Ralph Gittens, Peter Lewis and Garry Clarke. My apologies to those that I have missed.

At the time Johnny ran the Courtesy Garage used car lot on WhitePark Road. Jerry Seale worked nearby at the biscuit factory and he would spend most lunchtimes hanging out over at Johnny’s sales office. Whenever I had a free period around that time I would sneak out the back gate at Harrison College and join them. Others from his small rally group would occasionally drop in too, and it was sort of an informal planning spot for our next fun rally.

Not long after, I wish I remembered exactly when, but I think in either 1971 or 72, James got permission to use the old tennis clubhouse in Strathclyde for a meeting place. I remember going with him to Johnny and Vicky DeFreitas’ house one evening to discuss setting up a proper club format.

I’m pretty sure Jerry Seale and Maureen O’Dowd were there, and there were a few others but I can’t remember who. We talked about a name, and I remember wanting to use three words that spelled out RUM, but we could not come up with a good one. I’m not sure who eventually came up with GIN for Greatly Improved Novices, but that one stuck.

I have to add though, I was given the job as the first treasurer of the club, having to collect the monthly member dues, (I believe it was $5). The money was used to buy drinks and ice for the party after each rally, and I do not remember ever buying one bottle of gin. So much for any hidden meaning to the GIN club name.

The GIN club turned out to be a great success. The number of members quickly grew to include dozens of new enthusiasts like Geoff Goddard, Tyrone Moseley, Philip McConney, Robin Hinds, George Viera, Geoffrey Parkinson, Niel Ward, Bo Forde, Richard Roett and many, many more.

We would usually have one rally per month, some having as many as 15 – 20 cars entered, set by a rotating group of navigators, to keep things interesting. We had a lot of fun on those weekend rallys. Some were serious teams working on honing their rally skills, but many others entered just for sport and to be able to share some good stories, aided by a few rums, at the after rally party. One example was the Burton brothers, William and Ronnie, who entered once in a mini moke. I can only imagine what it was like handling a map, route sheets and average speed tables in an open car with all that wind blowing around. My sister, Margaret Spence (now Margaret Sitter) also went once, navigating for James, and they had a great time.

I also remember participating in at least one Treasure Hunt put on by the GIN Club. These were fun events that allowed any non-rallying partners to join in the fun. We would be given a small list of odd things to collect along the way to another location, with a clue or a riddle as to how to find the next location and item list, and so on. I think you also had to prove you had been to each location is some way, like having to count how many steps from the Crane Hotel down to the beach, etc.

If I remember correctly, most of our monthly rallys were about 50-60 miles, but I do remember that the GIN Club did put on a couple of major 250 mile rallys that required a lot of organizing, and I know that at least one GIN 250 was sponsored by the Barbados Tyre Center. I don’t remember the exact year, possibly ‘73 or ‘74, but I do remember it was won by Carter & Spence.

In all seriousness, I do believe that the GIN Club, and I credit Johnny DeFreitas in particular, did a lot to revitalize interest in motor sport in Barbados, ushering in a whole new generation of enthusiasts. It was also the perfect environment for new navigators to learn their stuff, without the stress of entering a big BRC event against all the experienced competition. Our monthly practice rallys would experiment with all the different styles of navigating, BRC, Tulip, Straight Line, etc, and share tricks and knowledge about favorite spots where a “D” check might be lurking to catch a novice in a wrong direction. It also provided a social connection that allowed drivers and navigators to meet and try out new partners until they found that perfect team combination. One example of that was Garry Clarke who entered his first rally navigating for Rosalind Parkinson, before going on to a very successful team up with Peter Lewis. Also Geoffery Parkinson started his first rally with Dads Goddard navigating, before eventually teaming up with Neil Ward.

I set a few of those early rallys and it took quite a bit of effort. You would first plot out the route you wanted to take, usually throwing in one or two tricky spots to try and catch out the new navigators with wrong directions, at strategically placed D-checks. Then you would have to drive the route to make sure that any cart roads you had planned to use were passable, and to measure the distance between each of the checkpoints you planned to set up. Then you would assign an average speed between checkpoints and calculate the time needed to drive each segment exactly at that speed. That set the time that the number one car should ideally arrive at each checkpoint, and since the cars would leave the start one minute apart, each following car would be expected to arrive at each checkpoint in one minute intervals. Penalty points were assigned for each minute late, and double for each minute early at a checkpoint. Next you would have to round up volunteers to man the various checkpoints and D-checks to record penalty points and wrong directions. Finally, you would have to write out the route instructions, double check them and then get them printed to hand out at the start of the rally. Then, fingers crossed that everything would go as planned.

Of all the rallys that I set, by best memory is one that we ended at Bath in St. John. Buns Corbin and myself had rented the small blue house at the south end of Bath, that I believe belonged to a Mrs. Edwards, for the weekend. The rally was also quite challenging, with many cars getting stuck up in muddy cart roads. It also ended by coming down the back hill by Bath River, that many said was close to impassable. So you can imagine the stories that were shared later, with lots of drinks to help them along. Part of that memory also includes Mary Donovan, a cousin of James Carter and David Reece who was visiting from Florida. At some point several of us, including Mary, went into the sea with drinks in hand. She got hit by a small wave but it splashed into her drink, which she continued to happily drink. Since that day she has been affectionately known as “Rum & Seawater.”

The Barbados Rally Club’s June Rally was the biggest rally event of the year. These rallys were usually about 500 miles in length, lasted two days including overnight, with only a brief dinner break and a 2-3 hour stopover break in the early hours of Sunday morning. Not for the faint hearted, and novice entries were not expected to do well, if they finished at all.

1973 was the first year that the GIN Club entered three teams in the BRC ESSO June Rally, and did very well. The top spot was claimed by repeat winners from 1972, John Allamby & Michael Mahon, but GIN Club entrants Peter Lewis & Garry Clarke took second while James Carter & Mike Spence took fifth place. I don’t remember who the third GIN Club team was or where they placed in the running, so if anyone knows, please help me fill in the blanks.

James and I also entered the 1974 Ziebart June Rally along with several other GIN Club teams, but I can’t remember how any of us placed. Basil Watkins & Andrew Phillips took the top spot that year. But in 1975, Carter & Spence came back to win the Gordon Spice June Rally, marking the first GIN Club victory in the Barbados Rally Club signature event. Later that year, I left Barbados for university, so my active involvement in the GIN. Club and rallying in general, came to an end.

Thankfully I left on a high note. It was a wonderful ride while it lasted and I’m grateful to those who helped me along the way, many of whom are no longer with us.

For those that are still here, and those that came after:

Keep on Rallying!