The Richard Stewart Memorial Rally Jamaica 2016 was officially launched on November 14, 2016 at the Knutsford Court Hotel.
The event which was originally slated to be the final leg of the NACAM Regional Rally Championship (NRC) will run as an Invitational Rally due to the last minute withdrawal of the NRC. Event organiser Lawrence Henriques pointed out that "this has been a challenging year for rallysport on a whole", however he and his team are committed to still putting on a show.
The event will still see a few overseas competitor faces with the return of Harold Morley representing Barbados, who will be co-piloted by Matthew Gore - returning to the co-driver seat after quite a few years and the Canadian team of Jan & Jodi Zedril who will be piloting the Mitsubishi Mirage RS of Bobby Marshall, who invited the duo to the event.

Former National Rallysport (Driver) Champion Christopher "Teach" McFarlane will also be participating in the event piloting the Team JETCON #2 car and with another import to boot, as he is joined by Andrew Balbour. Both competitors currently reside overseas, Teach in Barbados and Balbour in Florida. They will be throwing their hat in the ring for the JN8 podium finish. This class is where the battle for the rally title will sit.
Other teams up for the top position of claiming the title of Rally Jamaica champion includes the 2014 winner Kyle Gregg and Hugh Hutchinson, in their Mitsubishi Evolution, along with the JETCON car #1 team of Joel Jackson and Dmitri Dawkins, planning to go full throttle from stage 1 as they go for the crown. Getting ready to upset the apple cart we have young Fraser McConnell this time with Peter Clarke, the formerly twice retired co-driver by his side. Up next is Jordan Powell with co-driver Robert Bahadorsingh, who have had a little more seat time in their car this year so they should be up to the challenge.
Another young driver who has been doing his paces since this year is Timothy Stewart and alongside co-driver Stephen Gunter, who cannot be counted out of contention for a podium finish as they continue to grow more confident in their car. But let us not forget the big man himself Douglas Hollywood Gore with co driver Ian Banks, while they have not competed in any rallies for this year, Hollywood is a veteran driver and no doubt he doesn't plan to be outdone by the young guns.

Leslie Madden with co-driver Sean Williams completes the JN8 class. While young Nicholas Barnes should join Harold Morley in class JA8 to round out the 4WD competition for the event.

2WD action will see Thomas Hall with co-driver Marcel Brandon back behind the wheels of the Mitsubishi Lancer GT in class JA3, while Raynor King in the Knot Nice Honda class JA2, with co-driver Rameses McGregor will be entering his first Rally Jamaica event. McGregor have been in previous event having co-driven for Daryl King and Sebastien Rae in previous years.

Bobby Marshall should also be competing int he event but is yet to declare in what car. Registration for the event remains open until next Tuesday November 22, 2016. Drivers meeting and scrutineering will be on Thursday November 24, 2016 at the Knutsford Court Hotel

The event is scheduled to be held on November 26-27, 2016 with stages in Bog Walk for both days. A ceremonial start will be held at the Tru Juice Rally Lyme park at the start of Day 1 on Saturday, with a parc ferme after the final stage on Sunday at the same location. Prizegiving will be held on Monday November 28, 2016 at the Knutsford Court Hotel.