Natya Soodeen

Natya Soodeen is a rally driver from Barbados who started competing seriously in 2020. After a debut at Vaucluse Raceway in 2019, her first rally was delayed due to the coronavirus crisis. She managed to spend time training in Sweden and the USA before the King of the Hill Rally in October.

Her car was a BMW 318 Compact E36 and she was entered into the Barbados championship’s BimmaCup. Co-driven by Justin Sisnett all season, her best finish was a 24th place in the BRC Winter Rally. She was third in the BimmaCup. Her first entry into the Sol Rally Barbados ended early on, as she rolled her car.

In 2021, she concentrated on rallysprints in Barbados. Her best overall finish in the BMW was 21st, in the MCBI/BRC Sprint. As well as rallies, she won a national autocross championship.Away from active competition, she was elected head of the Women in Motorsport committee for Barbados.

In 2022, she rallied the BMW quite extensively in Barbados, with a best finish of 21st in the BRC Winter Rally. She had a new navigator in Tammy Nelson, having wanted to compete with a woman co-driver earlier. Sadly, she did not finish the Sol Rally Barbados again.

She got rid of the Sol Rally Barbados albatross in 2023, taking the BMW to 39th overall with Sameisha Williams.  It was an exciting year for her; she scored her first top ten in a single-venue stage rally in Barbados, and she also had her first overseas event. The Martinique Rally Tour was part of the French championship and she was fourteenth overall, winning the ladies' award.

She continued to compete extensively in 2024, aking the BMW to Martinique again. This time, it developed mechanical problems and she retired on stage 13, near the end of the second leg. She and Sameisha finished the Rally Barbados again, in 58th place, not helped by a penalty.The BRC Winter Rally was her best event again and she was 25th.

After so long with the BMW, it must have been a big change to switch to Peugeot power at the start of 2025. Natya's new car was a Peugeot 208 R2. She had an inauspicious start, failing to finish the season-opening BRC Shakedown Rally. The reason was prosaic; she was having trouble depressing the clutch fully. A month later, clutch pedal adjusted, she was finishing Rally Barbados, in 48th place from 67 finishers. She was then 18th in Martinique.

A series of class wins in sprint events in Barbados followed, leading to a class championship at the end of the year. She brought the BMW out again for the BRC Winter Rally, but did not finish.

She continued to rally the Peugeot in 2026.

Before turning to motorsport, Natya represented both Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago in equestrian events until she was suspended by sporting authorities, for reasons that were never made clear.

(Image coypright Natya Soodeen)

Female Rally Drivers Around the World: the Caribbean

 

Rallying is popular in the Caribbean nations, with an active local championship. Female drivers appear regularly. Below are short profiles of some of them. Natya Soodeen has her own profile.

Natasha Chang - Jamaican driver, active since 2007, when she took part in a TV-sponsored driver search. Her first rally was Rally Jamaica. Previously, she had done some drag races, speed events and autotests. She rallied a Mitsubishi Lancer in Jamaica in 2008 and 2009, as well as in Rally Trinidad. Her best finish seems to have been second overall in the Raynor King Memorial Stages Rally, in Jamaica. She was set to make a comeback in 2012, but appears to have switched to circuit racing, at least temporarily. In 2015, she represented Jamaica in the Caribbean circuit racing championship in Guyana, driving a Honda S2000. She suggested that she will be making a comeback in 2018 or after, but has not returned to rallying. She has done some speed record attempts since then.

Marcia Dawes - driver, co-driver and motorsport administrator from Jamaica. She began driving in sprints and gymkhana-type events in 2004. A year later, she did her first Rally Jamaica, finishing 17th overall in a Hyundai Coupe with a class win. She came into co-driving through administration, after designing rally stages and appreciating the skills needed to navigate. Her regular driver is Kyle Gregg and together they have won rallies in Jamaica and Trinidad.

Sarah-Jane Gopaul - rally driver from Trinidad. She began competing in night-time club events in 2008, after getting into motorsport through marshalling. It appears that she entered Rally Trinidad in 2011, and she may well have been thirteenth, according to some results lists. She entered Rally Trinidad again in 2014, in a Mazda 323, but did not finish. She usually drives Mazda cars, and carried on in the 323 for the 2015 and 2016 Rally Trinidad. In 2016, she finished the event in fifteenth place. Away from rallying, she is a teacher, which takes up a lot of her time.

Maeva Mornet - rallies a Renault Twingo in the French-governed Caribbean. She mainly competes in the Martinique championship, but in 2018, she also did the Bourbon National Rally on Reunion. For this event, she also used a different car: a Citroen C2. Maeva’s best result has been eleventh in the 2018 Martinique Rallye Tour, from 28 entries, until 2022. This year, she was eighth in the Rallye National des Champions and seventh in the Ronde Regionale de la Ville du Gros-Morne. Her best 2023 finish was sixth in the Madinina Regional Rally. In 2024, this was an 18th place in the Martinique Rallye Tour. Still in the Twingo, she scored two further top-ten finishes in 2025, the best of these being fourth in the Rallye Regional de la Ville de St-Joseph. She works as a nurse when not rallying.

Jodie Summerbell – Jamaican driver who competed in her home country. She drove a Mitsubishi Mirage in the 2005 Rally Jamaica, and was fourteenth overall. The year before, in 2004, she was seventh in the St Bess Tarmac Rally, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer. This was at least her second attempt at the St Bess event, in which she won her class in 2004, with an eighth overall, in the Mirage. She also raced a Mitsubishi Colt on circuits, and won at least one race outright. She is no longer competing.

(Image copyright Top Gear Singapore)