TWO-thirds of the rallying effort to bring awareness to the plight of Jamaica post-Hurricane Melissa — American rally driver Filippo Marchino and his current co-driver Alex Kihurani — paid a visit to Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness at the Office of the Prime Minister on Tuesday, October 13, to deliver tokens of their endeavour.

“It was our first time meeting the prime minister of Jamaica. He was very nice, very welcoming, and it felt good to be finally able to give him something that meant so much to us, as Alex and I were both connected to the cause,” Marchino told the Jamaica Observer’s weekly Auto magazine.

Marchino and Kihurani, joined by Jamaica Millennium Motoring Club (JMMC) Chairman Jeffrey Panton, presented one of the race suits and a model of the rally car adorned with the livery used to raise awareness for Hurricane Melissa disaster relief.

“It was such an honour to meet the prime minister. His support and enthusiasm for the effort we put in around the Hurricane relief was really exceptional, and felt welcome. It was nice to see that we could do something to try to raise awareness of the disaster on the island,” added Kihurani.

For Marchino, this all began in the wake of Hurricane Melissa and the path of destruction it cut through the island.

“I obviously saw the news stories. I live in Los Angeles. The news story lasted one cycle, and then it moved on. In that news cycle, what was missing was the actual understanding of how profound the injury to Jamaica was; how affected the people of Jamaica were,” explained Marchino.

Continuing to follow the situation himself, he was further moved into action once he saw pictures of the devastation.

“We realised we had a platform, so we took the opportunity of coming up with something that was going to raise some spirits, raise some awareness, and raise some funds,” he said.

That platform was his plan to run two events of the 2026 World Rally Championship — the opening round Rallye Monte-Carlo, Monaco, and the fifth round, Rally Islas Canarias, Gran Canaria. With that intent, Rally for Recovery was born.

Designing the livery of the car himself, Marchino adorned his Citroën C3 Rally2 car in the Jamaican colours, placing the Jamaican Government’s official disaster relief URL prominently on its side. This would extend to the race suits as well.

“There wasn’t a tonne of connection to Jamaica before. Jeffery’s predecessor as head of the JMMC was someone I knew from my involvement with the FIA [Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile], and I just saw the devastation, thought that I had to do something about it — as opposed to just send a like on Instagram. I wanted to take an affirmative step to try and help these people that I didn’t know, but felt for,” said Marchino.

The initiative was welcomed and fully supported by then JMMC Chairman Stephen Gunter, and Rally for Recovery garnered worldwide television and social media attention as Marchino and co-driver Pietro Ometto competed on the Monte-Carlo. This would continue to Rally Islas Canarias, where Kihurani joined him as co-driver. He explained that many were initially unaware of the extent of the devastation Hurricane Melissa had caused to Jamaica. Once informed, there was plenty of outpouring of support from the rallying community, fans and competitors alike.

“I was a big fan of the livery of the car. It was really cool to see,” Kihurani said.

As fate would have it, Marchino would meet Panton, who suggested and arranged the handover, at the July 2026 FIA Conference in Macau, China.

“I think this was a great initiative by Filippo, and anything we could do to help, we did,” said Panton.

Co-driver Pietro Ometto (left) and rally driver Filippo Marchino at the 2026 Rallye Monte-Carlo in Monaco.