If you conduct a straw poll of ‘petrol-heads’ in the Caribbean to determine what it is that drives so much competitor and spectator enthusiasm for motor sport, there are a few common themes: thrill-seeking, the social side, fascination with cars, the ‘lime’, bragging rights, the girls, the hype . . . oh, and did I mention the social side?

As one fan put it: “Motor sport in the Caribbean is like going to a nightclub; all your friends are there, it’s a chance to do some bonding, but with countless other things going on, including highly-vocal conversations, always good for their comic content.”

The noise is one of the first things to strike an overseas visitor about motor sport in the region, particularly someone from England, where a gentle ripple of applause or an understated “gosh, he’s quick, isn’t he?” is about as good as it gets.

In the Caribbean, where thousands of fans gather for major motor sport events, there is a permanent hubbub of noise, which rises to a crescendo as each car approaches, fans leaping in the air, flicking fingers and screaming for their favourite driver, especially if he’s skating sideways through the corner, punishing car and tyres ‘full broad’. As former UK Rally Champion Steve Perez said on his first visit: “It’s just amazing – you hear the crowd from inside the car, even over the engine noise, and wearing a crash helmet!”

Organised motor sport in the Caribbean dates back to the 1950s, and it is a tribute to the region’s enthusiasm for the sport that it has bounced back time and again from worldwide energy crises and internal political upheaval. International fixtures on race track or rally stage attract a percentage of the population of these small island states that would equate to literally millions attending a Formula 1 Grand Prix or World Championship Rally in Europe  – and it is not just the spectator numbers that impress. In Barbados, for example, nearly 400 islanders competed in one or other discipline last year, out of a population of just 280,000, and the annual motor sport calendar lists more than 40 events.

Different disciplines evolved in different territories (see sidebars), often dictated by infrastructure or resource levels – circuit racing took hold in countries such as Guyana and Trinidad, and to a lesser extent Jamaica, in the early 1950s as airfields built to facilitate submarine hunting during wartime provided top-class tarmac and acres of space. Elsewhere, it was rallying that first fired the imagination – the Barbados Rally Club celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007 and proudly runs the longest-established motor sport event in the region, the June Rally, following its first running in 1957.

This rich history is another key to the region’s enthusiasm for the sport, as sons – and, indeed, daughters – have followed in their parents’ footsteps. In Guyana, the names Rahaman and Vieira are known to generations of race fans, in Jamaica the Summerbells have achieved success in racing and rallying, while Barbados has third-generation drivers from the Barnard, Gill, Maloney and Manning families among others, with some youngsters not far away from becoming the fourth.

Unusually, the Barbados Rally Club has organised both circuit racing (at the purpose-built Bushy Park racetrack in the 1970s and 1990s) and stage rallying, and is now responsible for the Caribbean’s biggest annual celebration of motor sport and a major national event, Sol Rally Barbados, staged at the end of May.

Around 20,000 spectators turn out each year – with free access to the special stages, entire families arrive armed with coolers and refreshments; each venue is used more than once, encouraging spectators to make themselves at home, while the experience has been enhanced in recent years by the introduction of a Giant Daylight Screen showing aerial shots, in-car footage and GPS tracking.

This two-day tarmac rally, run on public roads temporarily closed with the co-operation of various Government ministries, attracts up to 90 crews, a third of them from around the region and Europe. In its 19-year history, the trophy has gone overseas just five times, the 2008 winner being former Junior World Rally Championship front-runner Kris Meeke from Northern Ireland, who described his trip as “the best 10 days of my life”.

It was not described in quite the same way by the Bajans, as Meeke led England’s Paul Bird and Jamaican Gary Gregg home to the first lock-out of the podium by overseas crews since 1996 – last time, it was fellow Ulsterman Kenny McKinstry with Jamaicans Jeffrey Panton and Doug Gore.

At least part of the steady increase in spectator numbers at major events such as Rally Barbados comes not from car fanatics, but from those who like a big occasion, with some international flavour and a chance to lime with their friends; hopefully, also taking pride in the home-grown talent representing well against the ‘furriners’.

But there remain many diehard enthusiasts, discussing every detail of engineering and preparation, praising or criticising drivers for their speed and car control – or lack of either, or both – and, of course, they could all do so much better, given the chance. And many do, indeed, take the plunge; throughout the region, newcomers join the sport every year – more spectators always equal more future competitors. And, in a part of the world where import duties make proprietary competition parts inaccessible to the majority, there are some ingenious and resourceful engineers who can make something from almost nothing.

This is evidenced in both circuit racing and rallying, although in the latter case, the growth in overseas competitors has encouraged the region’s leading drivers to ‘up their game’ and acquire ex-works machinery. And this is good news for the fans, who are now all-too-familiar with every aspect of motor sport worldwide in a way that was not possible before the explosive growth of the World Wide Web. And those arguments about which car is better, which driver faster, can continue year-round, thanks to motor sport internet forums, some in the region boasting more than 10,000 members.

And the information flows both ways – a Google check on Rally Barbados, which produced around 49,000 hits in January 2008, now produces nearly one million, just a year later. Increasingly, organising clubs are working closer with governments and tourism bodies to add motor sport to the sports-tourism mix. This is particularly so with Sol Rally Barbados, which injects around Bds $2m into the economy each year and last year enjoyed 24 hours of television coverage, broadcast in five languages to 16 million homes in 40 countries across Europe. Prime Minister David Thompson was among Cabinet members to support the event and was treated to a passenger ride at the previous weekend’s Shell V-Power King of the Hill.

And, while events in the region are attracting large numbers of European visitors, regional travel also benefits. If you are reading this in late May or early June, just glance around the cabin. You’ll almost certainly see a few folk wearing baseball caps or polo shirts with motor sport logos, as race and rally fans travel to follow their favourite stars – not only does Sol Rally Barbados run at this time, but circuit racing is in top gear, too.

New-found levels of co-operation across the region have resulted in the launch of the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship, well, relaunch really, more than 30 years after drivers from across the region competed in open-wheeler ‘formula’ racing cars. These days, raucous rotary-engined Mazdas fight for supremacy with 4WD Fords and Mitsubishis and hundreds of fans follow the action at Dover Raceway in Jamaica (May) and Bushy Park in Barbados (September), before the big showdown in November at South Dakota in Guyana where, 60 years ago, local enthusiasts started racing war surplus motorcycles.

While the three host nations field full four-car teams, there are also single-car entries from St Maarten and St Vincent, neither of which even has its own racetrack – just more of those Caribbean enthusiasts who will do anything, travel anywhere to enjoy their first love, motor sport.