FORMER British Ladies Rally champion Shelly Taunt aims to tick one of the boxes on her rallying bucket list off when she and co-driver Julie Murphy compete in the Sol Rally Barbados in their Group N Subaru Impreza.

They will be the first International all-female crew to contest the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event.

Sol RB15 will run in the final weekend of May 2015, with Scrutineering and Scotiabank King of the Hill the previous weekend.

Rally Director Neil Barnard said: “I have to say that the response this year has been quite astonishing. We have more than 40 overseas entries, around half of them are new to the event, and I am really pleased to say many of the newcomers from Europe have been encouraged to enter by teams who have become regular visitors in recent years.”

Taunt has won more than 20 titles since she started rallying in 1995 after winning a ‘Find a Lady Rally Driver’ competition, half of them with co-driver and near-neighbour Murphy – they live just a few minutes apart in the villages of Highworth and Inglesham, just north of the Wiltshire town of Swindon.

While a number of those titles are Ladies champions – from her first in the Association of Central Southern Motor Clubs Championship in 1998 up to her Association of North East Midland Motor Clubs title in 2012 – she has also won the British F1400 Championship, the BRC RallyMasters Production Cup twice and three Class Championships.

Although their existing sponsors Guest & Fiore Bricklayers, ASF Sign Factory, Combined Scaffolding, Jim Griffith Car Body Repairs and Julie Murphy’s Driving School are already on board, Shelly is looking for more through her web site, www.shellytauntrallying.co.uk.

She said: “We are all so excited, and can’t wait to be there. My ambitions include driving a World Rally Car and competing in Rally Finland and Sol Rally Barbados.”