Sol Rally Barbados 2012...

ENTRIES OPEN FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS 2012
Incentives for returnees to the Caribbean’s biggest motor sport event



Nearly 200 International competitors can benefit from the incentive programme on offer from the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) for next year’s running of the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international, Sol Rally Barbados. On-line entries open on Saturday (October 1) on the event’s official web site, www.rallybarbados.bb.

Subject to final ratification by the island’s governing body, the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF), Sol RB12 will take place on Saturday and Sunday, June 9/10, with Scrutineering and the Shell V-Power King of the Hill ‘shakedown’ the previous weekend, June 2/3.

While first-time overseas visitors will pay the standard entry and shipping package from Europe of US$2,600 per car, the real costs of which are already subsidised by the BRC by around one-third, those who have participated before will enjoy further discounts ranging from around 10 to nearly 40 per cent.

Of the 199 competitors from outside the Caribbean who have taken part since 2001, 35 have visited three or more times, clocking up an impressive total of 163 trans-Atlantic trips between them; of these, English BMW ace Martin Stockdale stands out as the event’s most loyal supporter – he has not missed an event in 11 years - while Scotland’s Kenny Hall has competed nine times, England’s Andrew Costin-Hurley eight.

Even the 115 competitors who have visited just once, and there were 21 newcomers in 2011, can benefit from a US$250 discount; the rising scale offers discounts of US$500 (two previous visits), US$750 (three) and US$1000 (four or more), the highest level representing around 38 per cent off the standard package.

Sol Rally Barbados Chairman Barry Gale said: “We introduced our incentive programme when our premier event celebrated its 20th Anniversary in 2010, in part to thank those Clubmen competitors from Europe whose contribution had played such a major role in our event’s success. The feedback was so good that we decided to maintain tiered entry fees for 2011, and again for 2012.

“The good thing is that our initial fears that the policy might result in an overseas entry list filled only by repeat visitors were unfounded; over the past two years, we’ve had the chance to host 40 first-timers to our event, and a good number of the enquiries about 2012 have come from names that are new to us, so it certainly looks as though we’re going to continuing making new friends.”

Sol Rally Barbados is a two-day tarmac rally, with 24 special stages run on the island’s intricate network of public roads, temporarily closed by permission of the Ministry of Transport & Works; Shell V-Power King of the Hill, run under a similar arrangement, features four timed runs on a stage that will not feature the following weekend and is used to seed the running order for the main event.

This year, the maximum entry was increased from 90 to 100 cars after Sol RB10 had been over-subscribed by 20 per cent; this new cap was reached one month before entries closed for 2011, with the total finally reaching 113 entries, with 31 from overseas. A combination of financial and preparation difficulties for local, regional and international crews, however, meant that number had diminished by the time Sol RB11 started, and it was not necessary to enforce the 100 cap.

Gale concluded: “Our decision to move up to 100 was largely made to ensure that we could accommodate the continued regional and international interest, even though financial and other factors mean we have not yet had to apply the cap and disappoint any prospective competitors. There is a structure to the entry process that guarantees fairness for local and overseas competitors, and I really can’t wait for entries to open to see how it is balancing out.”

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

CELTIC CROWD-PLEASERS CROSS THE CARIBBEAN
Sol Rally Barbados regulations posted on official web site


Northern Ireland's Gelnn Campbell on Rally Jamaica

Fresh from their recent exploits on Rally Jamaica, Celtic crowd favourites Glenn Campbell (Northern Ireland) and Allan McKay (Scotland) have confirmed that they will be returning for the 2012 running of the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international, Sol Rally Barbados (June 9/10).

They are among more than 30 entries already received on-line via the event’s official web site, www.rallybarbados.bb. Almost half are from overseas, and entries are arriving earlier than for Sol RB11, for which the organising Barbados Rally Club (BRC) had received only 19 by the same time last year.

Sol Rally Barbados Chairman Barry Gale said: “With exactly five months to go until entries close on May 14th next year, we are already nearly one-third of the way to our entry cap of 100 starters . . . to say I’m astonished would be an understatement, bearing in mind the difficult times people are facing all over the world.

“Five of the 12 international crews are new to the event, but it is always good to welcome back old friends, such as Glenn and Allan, who look set to be doing more rallying in the Caribbean than they do back home! The camaraderie among competitors and the lasting friendships that develop with fans in the island are among the key drivers to the success of the event, and these two guys exemplify that – long may it continue!”

Campbell will be paying his fourth visit to Sol Rally Barbados, returning with the Nissan Micra Kit Car in which he finished 30th overall last year; co-driven by Neill Finlay, this was his best result to date, and he missed out on the Modified 5 class win by just nine seconds to the Suzuki Swift Gti of local brothers Sean and Adam Cox.

Having previously said “if I only ever do one rally a year, it will be in Barbados”, Campbell (along with McKay) grew rather more adventurous this year and tackled Rally Jamaica, which celebrated its 20th Anniversary over the first weekend of December. Unlike Sol Rally Barbados, it is a gravel event, and a particularly tough one.

Co-driven by Joseph Gallagher, he placed 11th – just 13 of the 26 starters were classified as overall finishers – and was among only six of the 15 two-wheel-drive cars that started the event to complete all 21 stages run, a significant achievement on his first visit. Unopposed in class JA1, he also took home some trophies.

McKay’s priority tends toward entertaining the crowd, something he does with great style in his unique Ford Anglia WRC – in this instance, the acronym stands for Well Run Car! With co-driver Mo Downey, the two-day event started well, the Anglia second in class JA3 on the opening stage, just three seconds behind local ace Bobby Marshall, but suspension damage on stage two dropped them from the overall running. They returned for Sunday’s second leg, however, finishing 13th overall and JA3 class-winners for Leg 2.

Sol RB12 will be McKay’s third visit to Barbados – having retired with damaged steering in 2010, he finished 29th overall and fourth in SuperModified 10 this year with Stewart Davidson co-driving.

Sol Rally Barbados regulations posted on official web site

The Additional Supplementary Regulations (ASRs) for Sol Rally Barbados 2012 have been posted to the official web site, www.rallybarbados.bb; the pdf download can be found under the ‘competitor’ tab under ‘regulations’.

While the ASRs are broadly similar to last year’s, there are one or two key changes:

+ class awards will only be presented to competitors classified as overall finishers, although local competitors will continue to score BRC Championship points based on the traditional ‘two-thirds rule’

+ each competitor classified as an overall finisher will receive a recognition award, while there are new awards for the top five historic cars overall, as well as class awards

+ in addition to the web site updates, printed results will be available to competitors from a ‘Results table’ as they arrive at the service park

Sol RB Chairman Barry Gale explains: “We recognise that amateur competitors have many options when it comes to ‘rally holidays’ so we listen carefully to all constructive criticisms. Our goal continues to be an event that is Barbadian in character, but which runs on regulations that are familiar to most of our visitors, many of whom offered valuable insights in both 2010 and 2011.”

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com

web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

STOCKDALE RETURNS FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS 2012
Island motor sport celebrates record season


Image courtesy of Carlin gerbich

Popular British ace Martin Stockdale heads the list of returning international drivers whose names are among more than 40 entries so far received via the event’s official web site - www.rallybarbados.bb - for the 2012 running of the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international, Sol Rally Barbados (June 9/10).

Nicknamed ‘Mad-dale’ by island fans for his flamboyant driving style in a string of BMWs, Stockdale will be making his 12th consecutive appearance in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event; his co-driver in the Divi Southwinds Beach Resort/Drive-a-Matic Car Rentals/Quarry Motors BMW M3 Compact will be Mark Swallow, who will be competing in the island for the eighth time.

Three times a class-winner in the past decade, Stockdale is entered in the hotly-contested SuperModified 11 class, in which he finished fourth in 2011 and 18th overall. His opposition will include another returning crew from Britain, Nigel Worswick and Lindsey Pilkington, who finished 26th overall and fifth in SM10 on their first visit to the island last year. For 2012, the Worswick Engineering Ford Escort MkII has received an engine transplant, moving it up a class.

The rallying careers of both Stockdale and Worswick date back many years, both of them having entered – and finished – Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship more than once during the 1990s. At the time, Stockdale drove an Opel Monza-engined Vauxhall Carlton, unique in British rallying, while Worswick was more conventional, missing out on a top 10 finish by just one second in 1996 in a Ford Sierra Cosworth 4 x 4, having finished in the top seven on the last five of 26 special stages.

Back for his ninth visit is Britain’s Andrew Costin-Hurley, who will again contest Group B in the Earl’s Performance Hoses Ford Puma, in which he won the class in Rally Barbados in 2007 & ’08, and in Shell V-Power King of the Hill in ’09; fellow-Brit Shaun Mellett returns for his third visit as co-driver since 2009, when he came to celebrate his 25th wedding anniversary. An experienced Indy car and F1 engineer, Costin-Hurley created the Puma himself with 300bhp 2-litre turbo, rear-wheel drive, Sierra running gear and Escort WRC suspension.

Sol Rally Barbados Chairman Barry Gale said: “It is always a pleasure to welcome our repeat visitors, and ‘Mad-dale’ is right there at the top of the list, as he hasn’t missed a year since his first visit in 2001. Not only has he been one of the most entertaining to watch, as our fans really do enjoy a sideways BMW, but he’s also been very competitive, taking a trophy back on the plane with him nearly every time.”

Island motor sport celebrates record season

Motor sport in Barbados is in good health, and making a growing contribution to the island’s sports-tourism product. Last year, for the first time since the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF) was established in 2000, more than 400 local competitors took part in BMF-sanctioned events, a total boosted to nearly 500 by a record number of overseas competitors, bringing with them worldwide publicity and valuable foreign exchange.

Affiliated to the FIA, which rules the sport worldwide, the BMF is the island’s governing body for motor sport; it also represents the interests of its six sporting member clubs in discussions with Government departments which facilitate the sport in the island, in particular the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.

Announcing the provisional calendar for 2012, which ratified the already-published dates for Sol RB12 and its associated events, BMF President Andrew Mallalieu noted: “Despite the prevailing financial climate, interest in motor sport from participants and spectators alike continues to rise. For the last two years, Barbados has hosted three International motor sport events, which not only help motor sport make an important contribution to the island’s economy, much of it in valuable foreign exchange, but are also the key to massively-increased worldwide television coverage.”

The BMF issued 415 competition licences, nearly three times the total issued in 2011 by Jamaica’s governing body, the Jamaica Millennium Motoring Club (JMMC), and more than twice the number issued by the BMF in 2006. The record total of 85 overseas competitors – the previous highest was 81 in 2007 – included 25 from the wider Caribbean and 60 from 12 more countries as far afield as Australia and South Africa.

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com

web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

REGIONAL CREWS SUPPORT SOL RALLY BARBADOS
On-line Overseas Competitor Information document now available



For the third year in a row, the Turks & Caicos Islands will be represented in Sol Rally Barbados . . . but with a difference. For the 2012 running of the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international on June 9/10, Paul Horton is shipping his Ford Escort MkI, to replace the Honda Civic which he has driven for the past two seasons.

Based in TCI, British-born Horton was the first regional entry received via the event’s official web site, www.rallybarbados.bb, which is now displaying the current entry list under the Competitor heading; this will be updated regularly, although the organisers may hold back some entries for promotional reasons. With the closing date for entries – Monday, May 14 – still four months away, the total currently stands at 44, including 18 from overseas.

Horton so enjoyed his 2010 debut that the Civic stayed in the island, contesting other rounds of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Virgin Atlantic-sponsored Championship in 2011. He has also competed successfully in recent years in Targa Newfoundland in North America; in 2008, he won his class in the Civic, 24th overall, then moved up the order in 2009 to fifth, with another class win, in the Java Island/H Racing/Sky Motor Sport Escort, which is already on its way to Barbados to be readied for competition this year.

In 2010, he finished 55th overall and sixth in Modified 6 in Shell V-Power King of the Hill, but retired from Sol RB10 with mechanical problems; last year, he was 42nd overall, fourth in M6 in King of the Hill, but gearbox problems from stage one of Sol RB11 dropped him out of contention, as he and co-driver Kristian Yearwood missed many stages. On Sunday morning, however, Horton set the fastest M6 time on the opening stage of the day, only for further gearbox issues to result in their retirement.

The other regional entries so far confirmed are both from Trinidad & Tobago, and run in Group N, known locally as Production 4. Stuart Johnson will drive his Mitco Water Laboratories-backed Subaru Impreza N12, co-driven by Lee Quesnel, while David Coelho and James Harris are entered in the Subway/Total Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX.

Of the two, Johnson fared better on Sol RB11, his first attempt as a driver, having failed to finish RB03 as co-driver for Wayne Persad. He finished fourth in P4 last year, with an old school friend, Barbados restaurateur Chris Hoad, as his co-driver. Regularly in the top 20 overall stage times, their best came mid-way through day two, when they were 10th, with Geoff Noel (Evo IX) the only local Group N driver ahead of them.

Coelho, who had failed to finish Sol RB10, suffered another weekend of dramas last year, missing a number of Saturday stages, then retiring with an ‘off’ just four stages into Sunday. His best stage results were 11th overall on Saturday, then 15th on Sunday, with eventual winner Mark Hamilton (Evo IX) the only local Group N driver to beat him.

On-line Overseas Competitor Information document now available

Additional detailed information is now available for international competitors, with the publication on the official web site - www.rallybarbados.bb – of the Overseas Competitor Information Document; available as a pdf download, it can be found by scrolling down from the Competitor heading and clicking on Event Information.

This document not only outlines the entry package on offer, including the discounts available for returning competitors – up to nearly 40 per cent for competitors who have participated four or more times – but also provides details of flights, accommodation and vehicle rental.

Competing cars from Europe will be shipped from Portsmouth on the English south coast on a Geest Line freighter, while Virgin Atlantic Airways is the event’s Official Airline Partner and Stoute’s Car Rental the Official Vehicle Rental Partner. The Divi Southwinds Beach Resort in St Lawrence Gap, Christ Church, is the Official Hotel Partner and will also provide facilities for the Rally HQ office and a number of key official and social events during the two weeks surrounding Sol RB12.

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com
web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

BARBADOS RAISES THE BAR AT RALLYE SUNSEEKER



Rallye Sunseeker, next month’s opening round of the MSA British Rally Championship, will be the focus of a major push for Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) and its island home. The organisers and tourism backers of the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international will use the award-winning event for the third consecutive year as a key part of its overseas promotion, while stepping up the level of involvement.

Supported by the island’s private sector Tourism Development Corporation (TDC), the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) will reward the winners of Rallye Sunseeker National with free entry and shipping to Sol RB12, flights and accommodation for driver and co-driver, plus rental car, a prize valued at around US $8,500 (£5,500).

In addition, the Barbados Tourism Authority’s (BTA) London office has this week signed an agreement to become a direct Marketing Partner of Rallye Sunseeker; key among a raft of value-added benefits is title sponsorship of an exciting new component of the event, a travel exhibition to run alongside Scrutineering, a first in UK rallying.

After 25 years as round one of the ANCRO National Rally Championship, Rallye Sunseeker became the opening round of the MSA British Rally Championship in 2011; it was voted ‘Rally of the Year’ by drivers, co-drivers and officials in only its first season in the UK’s leading championship. Based in the English south coast towns of Poole and Bournemouth, this year’s event is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, February 24/25.

The innovative ‘Rallye Sunseeker featuring the Barbados Holiday Show’ will be staged on Friday in the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC), which won the Outstanding Customer Service of the Year category at the Bournemouth Tourism Awards 2011. Among the best-known venues in the south of England and only a few hundred yards from the Town Square, the BIC is a big draw for local people, who have turned out in large numbers for an ‘up-close-and-personal’ look at cars and drivers at previous out-of-town scrutineering venues.

Once this new event has attracted the Friday shopping crowd in Bournemouth, attention will turn to the Ceremonial Start on Poole Quay, where thousands more families will gather for a further three hours of rally-themed entertainment after sunset. On Saturday, Somerley Park will host the keynote spectator stage, with one run each in the morning and afternoon, with the popular Motorfair to maintain interest throughout the day. Barbados and Sol RB12 will also be well represented at these venues.

BTA vice-president, marketing & sales UK, Petra Roach said: “Sol Rally Barbados is a key element of our sports-tourism product; there is great synergy between it and Rallye Suneeker – both earn vital tourist income in ‘slower’ months, winter in the UK and summer in Barbados, both are organised by really professional teams, and both attract huge crowds, so I am delighted to take our relationship to the next stage.”

Event Director Rick Smith said: “Rallye Sunseeker has always been about innovation, so our plan to use the BIC as the venue for Scrutineering and Documentation was always on the wish list. Now that the Barbados Tourism Authority has continued - and increased - its support for 2012, we are pleased that the novel plan to link the two activities has culminated in a motor sport event allied to a holiday show."

Sol Rally Barbados 2012 entries double up

Sixty entries for the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international have now been posted on the official Sol Rally Barbados 2012 web site (www.rallybarbados.bb), almost double the total at the same time last year. Of those 60, 21 are from overseas, including the prize packages offered to the winners of the 2011 Roger Albert Clark Rally and 2012 Rallye Sunseeker National in the UK.

Sol RB12 Chairman Barry Gale said: “By this time last year, we had 32 entries – to be at a total nearly double that now is remarkable. What interests me is that there are nearly 40 local or regional crews who were entered last year, but are not yet on this year’s list. The ASRs explain in detail the order in which we accept entries, and the ratio of international, regional and local. What can I say, other than make sure you get your entry in fast!”

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

IRELAND FOCUSES ON SOL RALLY BARBADOS
Shipping dates confirmed for European competitors


Image courtesy of Graham Curry Photography

Seven crews with Irish connections, including two new to the event, are among the 21 International entries already received for Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) through the event’s official web site, www.rallybarbados.bb . . . and the organising Barbados Rally Club (BRC) has thanked the media for the part it plays in spreading the word.

The latest newcomers confirmed for the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international are Raymond Conlon and Darren McCague from County Monaghan in the Irish Border Region. Their 270 horsepower 2-litre Conlon Travel Toyota Corolla, prepared by KMS Motorsport and Powertune, is entered in the BRC’s SuperModified 10 category.

Conlon started competing – in a standard production 1600cc Corolla – almost as soon as he was old enough to hold a driving licence. He won the Junior Event at the Killarney Rally of the Lakes in 2005, with four out of five stage wins, and is now a regular overall top 10 finisher and class-winner in events north and south of the border.

His best finishes include third overall, with the class win, on the toddsleap.com Ulster National Rally in 2008, a result repeated on the UTV Drive Circuit of Ireland National Rally in 2010. After more than two hours of stage time, Conlon finished just 20 seconds adrift of Emma McKinstry’s Subaru Impreza WRC and 26 seconds behind winner John Waring’s Ford Escort MkII . . . a result that would have been very different but for a 30-second road penalty Conlon and McCague had incurred early in the day.

Although this will be the crew’s debut in Barbados, they are already familiar with the event, having seen the TV coverage aired in recent years in Ireland, where the monthly Pacenotes Rally Magazine is also a popular read. Last year, in conjunction with the private sector Tourism Development Corporation in Barbados and the BRC, Pacenotes ran a hugely successful competition with a prize trip for two readers to Sol RB11. Details of its 2012 promotion will be announced shortly.

Sol RB12 Chairman Barry Gale said: “There is little doubt that the major increase in media coverage we have enjoyed over the past couple of years has helped our cause enormously, especially in these difficult times . . . and Pacenotes has certainly played its part in keeping our event at the forefront of competitors’ minds.”

Among those confirmed for Sol RB12 are popular Celtic entertainers, Ballyclare’s Glenn Campbell in his Nissan Micra Kit Car and Allan Mackay from Brora in the north of Scotland, whose unique Ford Anglia WRC is prepared by Mark Greer Motorsport in Northern Ireland, where Mackay’s co-driver for the event, Mo Downey, is also based. The current Sol RB12 entry list can be found on the official web site, www.rallybarbados.bb (under the Competitor drawdown), although some names are withheld for promotional purposes.

Shipping dates confirmed for European competitors

The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) has confirmed shipping dates for Sol Rally Barbados 2012 competitors travelling from Europe – the cars will leave Portsmouth on the English south coast on the Geest Line freighter Benguela Stream on May 8 for the 11-day Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean, with the return trip scheduled for June 16, to make landfall in the UK on July 4.

Sol RB12 Chairman Barry Gale said: “It has taken us a little longer this year to confirm our arrangements with our shipping partner, the Geest Line, as we have shifted our dates back a week or so, also there are extra Bank Holidays in the UK around that time. We know it is important to our European friends to know how long their cars are going to be away, so we have been working hard to secure the best possible schedule.”

The BRC is also investigating favourable shipping rates from the United States. Gale added: “We have always been interested in promoting our event in the US, but the shipping costs have presented challenges. We have had more than one enquiry from potential competitors this year, so we’re working towards an arrangement that might make it attractive for them to come down, too.”

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

BIRD AND SWANN FLOCK TO SOL RALLY BARBADOS
International entries approaching record numbers


image courtesy of Tony Todd

Two of the most successful British visitors to the Caribbean in recent years, Paul Bird and Rob Swann, have confirmed their entries for Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) through the event’s official web site, www.rallybarbados.bb. Entered for the fifth consecutive year, both have also become regular visitors to the island for family holidays outside rally season.

Their entries bring to four the cars now confirmed by the organising Barbados Rally Club (BRC) for the Modified 8-WRC category, with a number of other entries from home and abroad known to be intending to fight for overall honours in the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international.

After Ulstermen Kenny McKinstry and Kris Meeke, each of whom has won the island’s premier event twice, ‘Birdy’ has comfortably the best record of any European visitor; he finished second to Meeke, the margin around 17secs each time, in 2008 (Subaru Impreza WRC S9) and ’09 (Ford Focus WRC07), then third for the last two years in his Focus WRC08 with Scotland’s Kirsty Riddick, now his regular co-driver.

ANCRO National Rally Champion in 2005, Bird started his 2012 campaign with a fourth straight win on the Jack Frost Stages at the Croft racing circuit in the north of England two weeks ago. He said: “It's great to win this event for a record-breaking fourth time, especially as I've not driven the car on tarmac since Rally Barbados last June. The opening couple of stages were not perfect by any means, but once I got into my stride, everything started flowing and we got vital testing time with the car.”

Bird is contesting the MSA Asphalt Rally Championship this season, his first attempt at a tarmac series; before that starts, his next outing in the Frank Bird Poultry/Fuchs Titan Race Focus is this weekend’s Legend Fires North West Stages, where he is seeded at number two, behind last year’s winner, another successful Barbados visitor, Kevin Procter, co-driven by Dave Bellerby in his Impreza WRC S7.

Swann and Welsh co-driver Darren Garrod, fifth in Sol RB11 in a rented Impreza WRC S12, face a new challenge, as the Revolution Wheels/Waves Hotel Impreza N14 in which they won Group N in both Barbados and Jamaica in 2010 – the only crew to have done so – is undergoing a major upgrade at TEG Sport in England.

Swann explains: “The WRC hire option was not possible due to a lack of cars so, with future events in mind, I decided to build a B13 spec Impreza. My prodrive N14 is being stripped to a bare shell, lightened, then dipped and re-sprayed. The engine will be WRC build spec, with a six-speed sequential gearbox, active centre diff and programmeable diff controller. I have tested a similar car built by TEG and feel with some of the upgrades we are fitting to ours, it will be very competitive . . . and a lot of fun!”

The build should be complete by the end of March, followed by a tarmac test programme and entry on the Circuit of Ireland at the beginning of April for a final shakedown before sailing to Barbados: “Simple as that,” smiles Swann. Since his last visit, he is proud to have claimed his maiden overall rally win, on last November’s SA Gas Premier Rally, a forest event in the British Midlands.

International entries approaching record numbers

Of the 80 entries for Sol Rally Barbados 2012 that have been posted on the official web site (www.rallybarbados.bb), 27 are from International crews; adding the prize packages offered to the winners of the 2011 Roger Albert Clark Rally and 2012 Rallye Sunseeker National in the UK brings the total to 29, which equals the highest-ever European turn-out for the island’s premier event in 2003.

Sol RB12 Chairman Barry Gale said: “We are only just into February and we’re now less than 20 away from our entry ceiling of 100 cars. I am aware of three or four more overseas cars that are making serious plans to come, and I am also getting enquiries pretty much every other day, either directly, or through the web site.

“I realise that there is scope for one or two to drop out, as happened last year, but in the current climate, this sort of response is nothing short of remarkable.”

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

HALL AND VERBAAS RETURN TO SOL RALLY BARBADOS
Perez heads Sol RB connections in BTRDA season-opener


Image Courtesy of Sean Chandler | www.vtcaribbean.com

Four more regular visitors from Europe have confirmed their entries for Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) through the event’s official web site, www.rallybarbados.bb, bringing to more than 30 their combined total of visits to the island in the past decade.

Scotland’s Kenny Hall returns to compete for the 10th time - he has only missed one year since his 2002 debut - and has become a regular visitor for family holidays, too. This year, Holland’s Fenny Wesselink returns as his co-driver, making her seventh trip.

When Wesselink first visited the island in 2003, it was as co-driver to fellow-countryman Wim Wermink in his historic Opel Ascona; also in the Netherlands party that year was Frans Verbaas with an Opel Astra, co-driven by Kees Hagman. They return together in 2012, Verbaas for his sixth visit, Hagman for his third.

Hall has three times won the Modified 5 classification, in his Opel Corsa, in 2004 with Colin Smith as co-driver, then twice with Wesselink on the notes: in 2007, 22nd overall was also good enough for them to claim the trophy as the highest-placed crew including a female, and they won again in Sol RB09.

The four-time Scottish class champion is back for the third time with his ex-works Super 1600 Halltune Ford Puma; he is hoping for better fortune than on the car’s two previous visits - in Sol RB10, ‘Kenny & Fenny’ were just a few hundred yards away from another class win, until a wrong slot on the first run of the Shell V-Power SuperSpecial at Simpson Motors dropped them to second in M6.

Last year was one to forget, with an ‘off’ in the early part of Saturday, followed by a number of mechanical problems, and eventual retirement. Hall’s disappointment was compounded when teenage son Alex, making his island debut in his father’s former Corsa, had an accident on Sunday.

Hall says: “It is good to be returning again this year; business here is brutal, it has been the longest January that I can remember. Still, we’ve got May to look forward to - bring it on! We’ve got some fixing to do before we leave, though - we attempted the McRae Stages last October; it was pouring with rain and the stages were rougher than I can remember. We had to pull out after the sump split, the engine mounting split, the sumpguard bent and the lower suspension arm bushes popped out . . . it even tore the sills and fibre glass rear quarters to bits!”

Dutch Mini enthusiast Verbaas – the family have more than 20 examples between them – is bringing his distinctive self-built Group B Mini, which was dubbed ‘The Clockwork Orange’ by Britain’s popular Mini Magazine, for the fourth time. Created to mark the 50th Anniversary of the iconic marque in 2009, it is built around much of the running gear from his former Opel Astra Kit Car.

On his first visit in 2003, driving that Astra, in which he had won the Dutch Rally Championship in four consecutive years (1998 to 2001), he retired with overheating; four years later, he finished 27th overall and fifth in M7 in a newly-built Opel Astra Sport. On the brand-new Mini’s debut in 2009, despite very little chance to test before the event, Verbaas finished second in Group B; he went one better the following year, claiming the Group win, but slipped back down the order in Sol RB11, finishing seventh.

Perez heads Sol RB connections in BTRDA season-opener

Sol Rally Barbados connections are in action in the UK this weekend, with the start of the BTRDA Rally Championship, won in 2010 by island regulars Steve Perez and Paul Spooner in the Kick Energy Drink Ford Focus WRC07. Perez and Spooner are seeded at one for Saturday’s (February 11) Team GMF Wyedean Forest Rally, as last year’s winner and reigning BTRDA Champion Andy Burton is currently taking a rest from competition, now that his self-built Peugeot Cosworth is no longer eligible in the UK.

At three, Focus-mounted Charlie Payne is co-driven by Craig Thorley, Group N winner with Ryan Champion in RB08, while Roger Duckworth starts at eight in the Subaru Impreza WRC in which he finished seventh in Sol RB11. Further down the field, father and son Rob and Ross Weir, who will compete in Barbados for the first time this year, continue the shakedown of their new Subaru Impreza B13.

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

DUCKWORTH FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS AGAIN?
Entries hit a century six weeks earlier than 2011


Image Courtesy of Jakob Ebrey Photography

Former UK National Rally Champion Roger Duckworth claimed his second consecutive Rallye Sunseeker National victory on Saturday (February 25) and, with it, the chance of a repeat all-expenses paid trip to contest Sol Rally Barbados in his Subaru Impreza WRC. It was his fourth win in the popular southern England event, making it his “best rally”.

Centred around the seaside resorts of Bournemouth and Poole, Rallye Sunseeker International, organised by Southern Car Club, is the opening round of the MSA British Rally Championship, the UK’s premier rally series, which runs under an International licence; Challenge, Historic and National events run concurrently.

Should he take it up, Duckworth’s package includes free entry, shipping for the Impreza, flights for driver and co-driver, plus accommodation and rental car; the prize trip to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International, presented by the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) in association with the private sector Barbados Tourism Development Corporation (TDC), is valued at around £5,500 (Bds $18,275).

For Rallye Sunseeker 2012, Duckworth was reunited with long-term co-driver Mark Broomfield; in front of thousands of spectators, brought out by the warmest day the UK had recorded for the year, they won every stage, steadily increasing their advantage from a little under two seconds to more than a minute by the finish. Throughout the event, they were chased by father and son Mike and Dan O’Brien, driving Ford Focus WRC08 and WRC02 respectively, and Anthony Willmington (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI), who had looked set to win the National event in 2011 – Duckworth incurred a two-minute penalty from which he was unlikely to recover – until ‘Willmo’s’ wheel studs failed.

Following their victory, Duckworth and Broomfield received their awards at Rally HQ, the Bournemouth Marriott Highcliff Hotel, during a Charity Dinner and Auction organised by the International Rally Drivers Club (IRDC) to raise funds for The Children’s Trust, chosen charity of Rallye Sunseeker 2012. The awards were presented by event patron Lord Somerton and Elle, winner of the inaugural Miss Rallye Sunseeker competition.

Among the items auctioned by well-known British motor sport television presenters Louise Goodman and Tony Jardine was a seven-day holiday for two in Barbados, donated by the London office of the BTA. It sold for £2,700 (Bds $8,480), helping the charity realise a total of £6,700 (Bds $21,045) from the auction, a significant percentage of more than £10,000 (Bds $21,045) raised over the weekend.

After receiving his awards, Duckworth commented: “Claiming a fourth win makes Rallye Sunseeker my best event; the lads at Autosportif prepared a car that ran faultlessly . . . and fast! We’ve had a good day with no problems. Now we just need to work out the timing, school holidays and so forth, to see whether we can make the trip a second time.”

Duckworth’s victory was his fourth on the south-coast event – he also won in 1998, 2004 and last year – moving him into second place in the roll of honour behind multiple National Champion Marcus Dodd, who claimed a seven Sunseeker wins between 1999 and 2010.

Entries hit a century six weeks earlier than 2011

Entries for Sol Rally Barbados 2012 posted on the event’s official web site, www.rallybarbados.bb, have already hit a century, six weeks earlier than last year . . . and with 11 weeks to go before the closing date. Of the current total of 104, there are 29 International entries – not including Rallye Sunseeker National winner Roger Duckworth, until he confirms – plus 68 from Barbados and seven from the wider Caribbean. At the end of February last year, the entry total was 61, with 100 not reached until early April.

Sol RB12 Chairman Barry Gale noted: “I am completely stunned at the rate at which entries have flowed in this year – not just the rate, but the number of new names as well! Of course, some of these may withdraw, as usually happens when so many people enter so early, but I still feel we could be facing our maximum start list of 100 for the first time this year.”

The record number of starters for the island’s premier event is 90 – this was achieved in 2003, when there were 38 entries from the wider Caribbean and further afield, and 2010, when the overseas entry total was just 28.

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

PEARCEY TAKES UP SOL RALLY BARBADOS PRIZE DRIVE
Chairman presents positive report at Rally Club AGM


Image courtesy of Simon Clarke

Tim Pearcey and Neil Shanks, who finished second in last December’s Roger Albert Clark Rally, will enjoy an all expenses-paid trip to Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10), the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international. The prize includes free entry and shipping for the rally car, return flights and accommodation for 14 nights for driver and co-driver, plus a rental vehicle for the duration.

Valued at US $9,000 (around £5,600), the prize was offered to the winners of Britain’s most demanding historic event by the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) and the island’s private-sector Tourism Development Corporation. Gwyndaf Evans and John Millington were unable to make the trip, however, despite a major effort by Viking Motorsport boss Phil Mills to ensure the availability of the winning Pirelli Ford Escort MkII.

BRC Vice-Chairman Mark Hamilton explained: “Phil had been working with us on the logistics for some weeks, looking at cars and schedules. Sadly, he simply could not get a car for the period of time necessary, so had to turn down the prize. We are sorry that it didn’t work out, particularly as Gwyndaf has something of a following in Barbados . . . but we look forward to welcoming Tim and Neil and making sure they have a good time in the island, with some serious motor sport in between for good measure.”

Pearcey and Shanks also compete in a MkII Escort, sponsored by Willowgreen Homes, Dunlop and German company Ravenol, which recently became Official Oil and Lubricant Partner to the MSA British Rally Championship as part of a move into the UK market. Pearcey started rallying around 15 years ago in a self-built Davrian kit car, then progressed to a Vauxhall-engined MkII Escort, in which he won the Kuhmo Tyres Clubman’s title in the 2004 ANCRO National Rally Championship.

His major achievements also include a double win on the 2005 Trackrod Rally in his native Yorkshire in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI: with co-driver Ian Windress – he sat with Paul Bird on his first two visits to Barbados – Pearcey won the National Rally on Saturday, then the Clubman’s Trophy on Sunday, beating John Bannister (Subaru Impreza) by more than 50secs on Saturday, but by less than four on Sunday.

In 2007, the same event did not go so well, explains Pearcey: “I misheard a pacenote at the end of a 120mph straight, the car hit a bank and launched into a tree, roof first. It took two hours to cut us out and I was airlifted to hospital with a broken neck. Without the skill and care of the crews on the scene, I don’t think I would still be here – it made me realise the dangers of our sport.” Four months later, however, Pearcey was fit enough to win his local event, the Riponian Stages, with Seb Marshall in an Evo IX.

Pearcey’s co-driver, Scotland’s Neil Shanks, is also an accomplished competitor: in 2001, he won the Scottish International Rally with Dave Weston, then the British Rally Championship Production Cup with Barry Clark (2005) and the British Junior Rally Championship (2007) with Darren Gass, who was also the first Pirelli Star Driver.

In the 2011 Roger Albert Clark, a faltering start left the pair 13th and playing catch-up after stage one; by SS4, they were fourth, where they remained until the retirement of third-place Paul Griffiths. A stage win on the event’s final 17.27-mile test saw them take nearly two minutes out of David Stokes, for a second-place finish behind Evans.

Chairman presents positive report at Rally Club AGM

Members of the Barbados Rally Club (BRC), which celebrates its 55th Anniversary in 2012, heard a positive report from Chairman Geoff Noel at the AGM on Monday (February 27); the Club posted a profit, despite the prevailing economic climate, while Sol Rally Barbados played a major role in promoting the island worldwide.

“Among the targets we set ourselves for 2011 was to continue to be proactive in our approach to getting sponsorship for the Club. This is on-going and our success is evident in the continued commercial arrangements with our long-term partners.

“We also significantly improved on our existing marketing plans in Europe by partnering with the Tourism Development Corporation. The International TV coverage provided by GreenlightTV, with a total viewership of 771 million homes across the world, resulted in unprecedented exposure for our island and the rally - this achievement is truly phenomenal!”

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

WRC TOP 10 FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS 2012
Duckworth confirms second trip to the Caribbean


Image Courtesy of Jakob Ebrey Photography

A record-equalling 10 cars have now been confirmed by the organising Barbados Rally Club (BRC) for the Modified 8-WRC class of Sol Rally Barbados 2012, following recent on-line entries received from former local, regional and international Rally Champions on the event’s official web site - www.rallybarbados.bb.

As entries for the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international approach 110, local interest has been boosted by news that Paul Bourne, twice winner of the island’s premier event (2003 and ’07), has entered, after much speculation about whether he would return to action this season.

With backing from Chefette, LIME, Slam 101, MQI, Banks and Castrol, Bourne will again campaign his ex-works Ford Focus WRC07, first seen in the island in 2009 in the hands of British regular Paul Bird. Bourne has finished second to Roger Skeete for the past two years, with another seven podium finishes to his credit since 1993.

Six times the Champion in the BRC’s premier class, Bourne has finished outside the event’s top 10 only once – 14th in 2001 in a Subaru Impreza WRX – and missed an overall finish only three times, the first in 2002, after a major accident on stage one in his Impreza WRC. In 2005 and ’08, after Saturday problems, he won the Sunday Cup.

Jamaica’s John ‘Pentti’ Powell, who rallies under the flag of his adopted homeland Trinidad & Tobago, is also confirmed in his Intercontinental Shipping Ltd/Trinidad Mooring & Launch Services Ltd/FT Farfan/Shell Impreza WRC S14. He has twice finished second in Rally Barbados (2005 and ’07 in Toyota Corolla WRCs) and has just missed the podium for the past two years, fourth in an Impreza WRC S12.

Last September, on the S14’s debut, he finished third to Skeete and Bourne in the Motoring Club of Barbados Inc’s Rally of the Sun & Stars, then went on to win Rally Jamaica for the first time. Having won Rally Trinidad in 2010, he will be keener than ever to add victory in Barbados to his tally.

He has started his year well, winning last month’s opening round of the Trinidad & Tobago Rally Club’s 2012 Championship in his Shell-backed Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X. He was co-driven by the experienced Jamaican, Mike Fennell Jnr, who will also sit alongside him in an Evo IX in this year’s NACAM Rally Championship, which kicks off in April in Mexico. In Barbados, his co-driver will be Trinidad’s Nicholas Telfer, as last year.

Duckworth confirms second trip to the Caribbean

Former UK National Rally Champion Roger Duckworth is the latest to confirm his participation, having claimed his second consecutive Rallye Sunseeker National victory last month. His fourth win on the UK’s popular south coast event earned him a repeat all-expenses paid trip, presented by the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) in association with the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC).

On his first visit last year, Duckworth and Welsh co-driver Aled Davis – he will co-drive again this year - finished seventh in the Intrinsys/Kumho/Autosportif Impreza WRC, after they had dropped out of the top 10 early on day one. He was regularly in the top six by the end of Sunday, claiming the final stage win at the Shell V-Power SuperSpecial.

Late last year, Duckworth was a front-runner in three of the UK’s most competitive events, the Woodpecker, Trackrod National and Wales Rally GB National. Against very stiff BTRDA competition, he finished third on the Woodpecker, then enjoyed a titanic battle with Charlie Payne (Ford Focus WRC07) in Yorkshire: “I really enjoyed the event, due to the close battle with Charlie until he retired, although we lost out on the win by a navigation error on the way to the finish control. The finale for the year was great - after two days of rallying in mid-Wales, we just pipped Nigel Griffiths (Impreza) to the win by 2.2 seconds.”

Of his second trip to Barbados, Duckworth says: “I am looking forward to returning to Barbados with at least a little experience, but probably still a long way from knowing enough to fight for the podium (maybe my slightly vintage equipment has a minor competitive disadvantage, as well as me!). However, I could say that I hope to continue my form from the last stage of Sol Rally Barbados 2011- where we were fastest!”

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

MARSHALS “BEST PRIZE” FROM SOL RALLY BARBADOS
Bird launches Asphalt Championship attack


Image Courtesy of Graham Curry Photography

The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) has stepped up its worldwide promotion of Sol Rally Barbados 2012 by joining forces with the Donnelly Group Circuit of Ireland Rally (April 6/7). Two lucky volunteer marshals who work on the Easter weekend event will win an all-expenses-paid return trip across the Atlantic if their names are drawn out of the hat by reigning Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) Champion Andreas Mikkelsen.

The competition, organised in association with the Caribbean island’s private-sector Tourism Development Corporation (TDC) and Ireland’s Pacenotes Rally Magazine, was announced earlier this month at a meeting of Stage Commanders, but only made public this week. It has already been greeted enthusiastically in the mainstream Irish media, also on social media sites such as twitter and Facebook and described as “the best prize in UK and Irish rallying” for marshals.

For the first time ‘the Circuit’, one of the world’s oldest rallies – it first ran in 1931 – is a round of the IRC, promoted and broadcast by Eurosport, and won by Ulsterman Kris Meeke in 2009, the same year in which he claimed his second consecutive victory in Sol Rally Barbados. It is also part of Belfast City Council’s Titanic Festival, marking the Centenary of the launch of what was at the time the world’s largest passenger liner - the event will start on a purpose-built SuperSpecial stage on the site of the Harland & Woolf shipyard where it was built, now known as the Titanic Quarter.

Neil Barnard, the BRC’s PRO, commented: “Over the past two years, in association with the TDC, we have offered prizes to competitors and spectators. This competition is perhaps the most important, though, as we are rewarding those volunteers without whom motor sport simply could not go on, while aligning our event with an exciting new round of the IRC, which looks set to enjoy worldwide focus.

“The spectator competition that we ran in Pacenotes last year was a tremendous success, and certainly helped to further raise the profile of Sol Rally Barbados in that rally-mad country – of the 12 new International crews currently entered this year, five are from Ireland, and we have a total of eight crews with Irish connections on our list.”

Pacenotes publisher Simon Mooney, who travelled to Barbados last year with the spectator prize-winners, added: “From our perspective, we’re delighted to be putting something back into the sport, especially as it is going directly to the people that matter. As we all know, motor sport around the world simply could not function without thousands and thousands of volunteers – in Barbados last year, I found the same infectious enthusiasm and commitment that I have become so familiar with here at home. I’m sure that whoever wins this great prize will not only enjoy themselves, but will find it difficult not to join in while they are there.”

All volunteers and marshals over the age of 17 will automatically be entered into the competition, to be drawn during the post-event Prize-giving by reigning IRC Champion Mikkelsen. The prize trip for two to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International includes return flights on Virgin Atlantic from London Gatwick, accommodation for 14 nights and rental car for the duration. Manpower Manager for the Circuit of Ireland, Des O’Loan, said: “Sol Rally Barbados is a really great event and I know the two lucky winners will have a super time.”

Bird launches Asphalt Championship attack

Paul Bird, a Sol Rally Barbados podium finisher for the past four years, has launched his first attack on the REIS/Get Connected MSA Asphalt Rally Championship in the UK. Driving the Frank Bird Poultry/Fuchs Titan Race Ford Focus WRC08 in which he will contest Sol RB12 with regular co-driver Kirsty Riddick, he finished sixth on his debut on the notorious Tour of Epynt, last weekend’s opening round, run over demanding military roads in Wales.

He said: “To drive as hard as I did for sixth place, and to be off the pace by nearly two minutes, is a little disappointing but, given the experience the drivers in front of me have on these ranges over the years, I shouldn't be too harsh on myself. Let's see how we get on when we get to the Isle of Man for the next round, as I know my way round there OK!" Bird is a double winner of the Manx National Rally (2009 and 2010), so may be well-placed for this year’s event in May.

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

SOL RALLY BARBADOS 4WD GROUPS FLYING HIGH
Anglia JWRC outing gets ‘Mr Entertainment’ in the mood



Entries for the four-wheel-drive groups in Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) are flying high. Recent postings on the event’s official web site, www.rallybarbados.bb, are pushing numbers towards record levels . . . and there are still seven weeks to go before the closing date for the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international.

With 10 crews confirmed by the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) for Modified 8-WRC, there has also been an upsurge of interest, particularly from overseas, in M8-A and Production 4 – island-speak for Group A and Group N, respectively. There are 28 4wd entries, compared with the previous highest, 25 starters in 2008 & ’09 . . . while total entries received have now passed last year’s record of 111.

Among the latest drivers confirmed are two returnees from the UK, Tom Roberts and Simon Wallis, who bring to 20 the number of International crews on the on-line entry list, which can be found under the Competitor tab on the web site’s home page.

Londoner Roberts is returning for a fifth visit, hoping to enjoy better fortune than in Sol RB09, when the sight of his M8-A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI leaving the very first stage on a wrecker, along with Roberts and co-driver Paul Rees, became one of that year’s iconic images. Roberts cites it as one of his major disasters: “It was the 17th corner, and I learned an important lesson: do not over-rule your co-driver when you think you can take a corner faster . . . ever!”

Although he had also posted a dnf on his first visit in 2002, in a rather tired Toyota Celica GT4, Roberts claimed two solid finishes in between: in 2005, he was 30th overall and second in P4 in a Subaru Impreza WRX, then 21st overall, fourth in M8-A, three years later in the Evo VI, which twice won the UK’s BTRDA Championship in the hands of its previous owner, Roger Chilman.

For Sol RB12, Roberts will have girlfriend Nicky Marriott as co-driver, a seat she has occupied since last year. Of their partnership in the car, Roberts says: “She's the only one who seems to be able to control me!” And it certainly seems to work, as they finished third in the single-venue Brands Hatch Stage Rally in January.

Wallis is back for his eighth Rally Barbados, his second in the P4 Wallis Performance Impreza N10. His seventh different co-driver in Barbados is also female, his sister Carolyn Pearce. Wallis notes: “Carolyn’s a paramedic, and her day job includes driving a rapid response vehicle at up to 120mph around Newcastle-upon-Tyne . . . so, navigating a rally car is a relatively low-speed day out for her!”

On his previous visits – his first was in 2003 - Wallis, who runs a software consultancy in Cambridge, has had five finishes and posted two dnfs in a total of five different cars. His best results came in the early days, finishing second or third in P3 three years in a row in a trio of Vauxhall Astras.

Returning to his front-wheel-drive roots, Wallis is driving an AVS Motorsport Ford Fiesta ST in the 2012 BTRDA Gravel Rally Championship, but will miss round five – the Dukeries Rally – because of Sol RB12. After two events, the Wyedean and the Malcolm Wilson, he leads N3 in the BTRDA series and E4 in the MSA English Rally Championship.

Anglia JWRC outing gets ‘Mr Entertainment’ in the mood

Scotland’s ‘Mr Entertainment’ Allan Mackay has been preparing for his third visit to Sol Rally Barbados. With his own Ford Anglia WRC not immediately to hand, the former Scottish Tarmac Champion needed a replacement . . . not a problem in his household!

Son Euan’s car was shipped from Scotland to Ireland and prepped by Mark Greer Motorsport; carrying the registration number FUN 105E, the ‘Anglia JWRC’ has a 2-litre Vauxhall engine, sequential gearbox and, as co-driver Mo Downey reports, “it gets all the hand-me-downs off the WRC.”

They were seeded 23rd among nearly 80 starters in last Saturday’s (March 17) second round of the Northern Ireland Rally Championship, the Bishopscourt Stages. Downey says: “We were out practising to keep our ‘entertainer award’. It was very slippy in morning, so we were sideways everywhere, then it dried out. We lost fifth gear on stage two, which hurt our times, plus all the laughing in the car didn’t help, but then we burst the sump over the jump on stage five, so the day ended early. We’re both looking forward to Barbados again this year – bring it on!”

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

SOL RALLY BARBADOS TARGETS REGIONAL FANS
Gill leads Barbados crews against regional rivals in Rally Trinidad


Images Courtesy of Gerrard Wilson Photograph / www.trinituner.com

In a first for Caribbean motor sport, the Barbados Rally Club (BRC), organiser of Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10), has partnered with Going Places Travel to launch a series of specially-tailored travel packages targeted at the hundreds of motor sport fans in the region. Inclusive of round trip airfare, all taxes and fees, hotel and rental car, prices for a three-night package start at just US $494.

The regional push is the final component of the BRC’s overseas promotion to be announced. Supported by the island’s private-sector Tourism Development Corporation (TDC), the programme also includes prize drives offered to the winners of the 2011 Roger Albert Clark Rally in the north of England and 2012 Rallye Sunseeker National in the south, while two marshals who work over the Easter weekend on the Donnelly Group Circuit of Ireland will also enjoy trips across the Atlantic.

BRC PRO Neil Barnard explained: “The promotion has two strands – first, we want to tap into the regional spectator market in a more structured way, by offering a better package than individuals might themselves negotiate. Second, and just as important, it will also give the Club and our partners in island tourism a better way to quantify the numbers travelling. We have pretty accurate figures for competitors, their teams and the media – more than 50 last year, for instance, representing around 300 tourist nights – but the spectator attendance has only been an estimate. Space is limited, so anyone wanting to take advantage of the promotion is advised to book early.”

The packages, which are being advertised in print and electronic media across the region, offer travel from Antigua, Jamaica, St Vincent & The Grenadines and Trinidad & Tobago; they are available for either three or ten nights, with a choice of four hotels, three on the south coast, one on the west, with slight price variations. Hotel and rental car packages are also available. Full details of the promotion, which has been launched this week to coincide with Rally Trinidad, can be found at www.going-places.tv.

Duane Boodasingh of the popular trinituner.com web site in Trinidad added: “These travel packages are an excellent idea from the Barbados Rally Club. I can imagine the other legs, Rally Trinidad and Rally Jamaica, adopting similar packages in the future to create a truly cohesive Caribbean Rally experience in the region! Given the calibre of these events, it's Sport Tourism at its best!"

Gill leads Barbados crews against regional rivals in Rally Trinidad

Double Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Champion Driver Sean Gill represents Club and country this weekend (March 30-April 1) in Rally Trinidad. With regular co-driver Michael Cummins in the Simpson Motors/Shell V-Power/Automotive Art Suzuki SX4 WRC, he will be looking to start the Caribbean tour with a victory, after finishing second in RT for the past two years, also in RJ last December.

Along with Sol RB12 (June 9/10) and Rally Jamaica in December, Rally Trinidad makes up the ‘Big Three’ in regional rallying; while Barbados hosts a tarmac event, the other regional ‘legs’ are loose-surface, each with a distinctive character. So far, only Jamaica’s Jeffrey Panton has won all three . . . and it took him 13 years to achieve that.

Six times the winner at home between 1994 and 2008, Panton won the BRC’s premier event in 1998 – he was the first regional driver to do so – then ticked the final box in Trinidad last year at the wheel of his ex-Colin McRae Ford Focus WRC00. In terms of the ‘Big Three’, he has the best record – eight wins across the region - and his recent purchase of a Focus WRC06 suggests he could continue to be the man to beat.

Panton’s fellow-countryman Gary Gregg is not far behind in the regional pecking order, with five wins in Jamaica since 2005, plus Barbados in ’06. Armed now with a Focus WRC05, he is another target for Gill, along with Jamaica’s John Powell (Subaru Impreza WRC S14), who rallies under the flag of his adopted home country, Trinidad & Tobago, where he has won three times – 2005, ’06 & ‘10 – along with Jamaica last year.

Also in action from Barbados are James Betts in the ex-Kirk Watkins Group A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V, Trevor Manning, who will drive Powell’s Group N Evo X, and Harold Morley (Impreza N14).

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

PANTON FIRED UP FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS
Character-building weekend for Barbados crews in Rally Trinidad


Images Courtesy of Gerrard Wilson Photograph / www.trinituner.com

Fresh from an encouraging debut in his recently-acquired ex-Marcus Gronholm Ford Focus WRC06, Jamaica’s Jeffrey Panton is fired up for his tarmac debut in the car on Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10). With regular co-driver Mike Fennell Jnr, he finished second to local hero John Powell’s Subaru Impreza WRC S14 on the tough loose-surface stages of last weekend’s Rally Trinidad.

Winner of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event in 1998 in a Toyota Celica GT4, Panton is the only driver to have won the ‘Big Three’ in regional rallying, the gravel events in Jamaica and Trinidad and the closed-road tarmac event in Barbados. Six times the winner at home between 1994 and 2008, Panton ticked the final box in Trinidad last year in an ex-Colin McRae Focus WRC00.

Driven to victory in the 2007 Galway International Rally by double WRC Champion Gronholm, Panton’s new Focus, which is run by Dom Buckley Motorsport, arrived in the Caribbean only days before RT12. Backed by Total Lubricants, he drove it for the first time last Thursday: “As expected, it was a steep learning curve for us with a new car, but I think we climbed it rather quickly . . . just not enough! John drove like a true champion this weekend, his consistency and pace since Rally Jamaica have been staggering, with a level of maturity that will see many more victories.”

On the Caribbean ‘tour’, Panton has the best record – eight wins across the region – but it is not the success that drives him: “The cameraderie and friendships between us just simply make doing these rallies worth it, win, lose or draw. We are still trying to obtain sponsorship for Rally Barbados and it will be another steep learning curve on tarmac but, if I have half as much fun as I did in Rally Trinidad, it will all be good!”

Confirmation of Panton’s entry has delighted Powell: “Jeffrey will be a formidable competitor in Barbados and Jamaica. I did not expect him to come to grips with his new Focus so quickly, and that is testament to the fact that he is still one of the best - if not the best - rally drivers to ever come out of the Caribbean.”

Panton’s entry posted on the official web site, www.rallybarbados.bb, brings to a record 11 the entries in Modified 8-WRC, also a record number of ex-works cars. He is the fourth winner to confirm his entry in the class after local drivers Paul Bourne, Roger Skeete and Sean Gill, who won as co-driver to Ireland’s Kenny McKinstry in 1996.

One former winner not listed is Jamaican Gary Gregg, who won in his ex-Carlos Sainz Focus WRC02 in 2006, and that is a source of regret for Panton: “We just need someone to convince Gary to come . . . I've grown accustomed to travelling and competing as a team and it won't be the same without him!” Powell agrees: “Rally Barbados would not be the same without Gary there, and I really hope he changes his mind.”

Character-building weekend for Barbados crews in Rally Trinidad

After leading all three four-wheel-drive classes in the early stages of Rally Trinidad last weekend (March 30-April 1), Barbados Rally Club (BRC) members endured a series of character-building disappointments, none more so than Sean Gill and Michael Cummins (Suzuki SX4 WRC), who rolled into retirement, having led much of the event.

With six wins on the 11 stages on Friday and Saturday, Gill carried a comfortable lead into Sunday, although re-seeding put him first on the road, ‘sweeping’ the gravel stages a costly disadvantage. On home ground, John Powell/Nicholas Telfer (Subaru Impreza WRC S14) assumed the lead on stage 17. With four stages to go, Gill rolled – both he and Cummins were uninjured – promoting Jamaica’s Jeffrey Panton/Mike Fennell Jnr (Ford Focus WRC06) and Gary Gregg/Hugh Hutchinson (Focus WRC05) to the podium.

After Gill’s accident, Powell said: “Sean is the kind of driver that rarely puts a wheel wrong, but this goes to show the level of commitment that each of the top drivers have to display now in order to win. He is a tough competitor and a true sportsman.”

In Group A, early leaders James Betts/Geoff Goddard of Barbados (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V) retired late on Saturday with a combination of mechanical issues, while Trevor Manning and Derek Edwards, who had led Group N in Powell’s generously-loaned Evo X, were unable to rejoin after an ‘off’.

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

BIG PUSH FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS IN IRELAND
Mixed fortunes for International crews preparing for the Caribbean


Image courtesy of Xav McCartan/Pacenotes

Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) enjoyed a major presence over the Easter weekend at the Donnelly Group Circuit of Ireland Rally. One of the world’s oldest rallies – it dates back to 1931 – it was, for the first time, a round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC), which is promoted and broadcast by Eurosport.

Reigning IRC Champion Andreas Mikkelsen took time out of his busy schedule to draw the names of two lucky volunteer marshals out of the hat; their names will be revealed next week, once everything is in place for their all-expenses-paid return trip across the Atlantic to see Sol RB12 first-hand.

The prize draw was organised in association with the Caribbean island’s Tourism Development Corporation (TDC) and Ireland’s Pacenotes Rally Magazine. It was the final component of the European promotion of Sol RB12, which has resulted in a record-breaking International entry, including 10 crews from Ireland, more than half of whom are newcomers to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International.

The Zero car also carried Sol RB12 stickers, promoting the event across the whole length the ‘Circuit’; crewed by Barbados regulars Martin Taylor and Peter Gallagher, the Dublin Crystal Proton Satria will now be re-fettled before joining the other European cars at Portsmouth for shipping to Barbados in early May.

The Satria ‘stars’ in the opening sequence of a video which has enjoyed more than 20,000 hits on various internet sites - the first of a number of drivers to slide wide on a slippery downhill left-hander early on day two, Taylor struck and opened a gate through which others passed into a grassy field. As Taylor said afterwards: “Ooops! But I don’t feel too embarrassed, as Andreas Mikkelsen did the same thing a few minutes later!”

For both Taylor and Gallagher, old road-rallying friends from the 1970s, this year is the seventh trip to Barbados. Taylor will have son Eddie as his co-driver for the first time in the island, replacing wife Janet; he says: “Eddie’s on the notes, Janet’s on the beach! It’s become a family occasion now, as it has for so many other competitors.”

Gallagher, who has competed in a variety of Peugeots in recent years, will drive a Talbot Samba in which he won class and overall Group A titles in the Irish National Championship in the mid-1980s. The car has been in storage since 1997 – Gallagher says: “It has been up on axle stands and hadn’t turned a wheel until a recent test day; it is like a time warp machine, unsullied by modern conveniences like ECU and so forth.”

Confirming Taylor’s view of the Caribbean ‘craic’, Gallagher says: “I have had a great time in Barbados, and always look forward to returning to the ‘Jewel of the Caribbean’.”

Mixed fortunes for International crews preparing for the Caribbean

International crews separated by nearly 5,000 miles have met with mixed fortunes over the past week as they prepare for Sol Rally Barbados 2012. Under the good news heading, island regulars Steve Perez and Paul Spooner finished fourth on the Donnelly Group Circuit of Ireland National Rally in the Kick Energy Ford Focus WRC07 that will be shipped to the Caribbean in a few weeks’ time.

After a spin on the Friday night Titanic SuperSpecial stage in the Belfast shipyards where the doomed liner was built, Perez started the rally’s closed-road tarmac stages in 69th place, but climbed back up the order to battle with previous ‘Circuit’ winner Derek McGarrity (MINI WRC). Perez said: “It was good to be challenging the locals for a place on the podium, so it has all been very positive."

On the other side of the world in Dubai, everything turned very negative for Welsh brothers Gareth and Lloyd Bettinson, who had built a pair of cars specifically to compete in Sol RB12. Having entered on-line in early October – the first newcomers to express their interest - they had worked tirelessly on their Ford Escort MkII and Renault Clio, both finished a few days before Easter.

Their deadline had been an Easter Sunday sailing from Jebel Ali, a port just south of Dubai, on a freighter that would have delivered their cars direct to the Bridgetown Port in Barbados after 40 days at sea . . . but the voyage was cancelled. Gareth said: “We are both extremely disappointed; we have explored every possible avenue of getting the cars to Barbados and it just isn’t going to happen. We will definitely be there in 2013.”

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

IRISH ATTACK SOL RALLY BARBADOS FROM TWO SIDES
Countdown steps up a gear with Valvoline Shakedown Stages


Image Courtesy of Graham Curry Photography

As Irish entries for Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) approach record numbers, the latest crews confirmed reveal an attack on the event from both sides of the Atlantic. As County Antrim’s Joe McQuillan confirms his entry in Group A, the country’s four-wheel-drive contingent is boosted in Group N by New York-based Martin Donnelly, both newcomers to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international.

McQuillan has been rallying since the late 1990s and has won Mid Antrim Championship titles five times in the past nine years; the early wins came in a modified Honda Civic, but the most recent – in 2011 – was in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII prepared by McGrath Motor Sports Ireland, which he will be shipping to Barbados.

Bought in 2009, the former Group N car has since been converted to clubman Group A, which will slot into the island’s Modified 8-A category. McQuillan says: “I have had a couple of overall wins, plus podium finishes - it has approximately 340 horsepower and we’re capable of setting times against early WRC cars up to, say, 2003.” For his Barbados debut, the Ulster farmer’s co-driver will be Neill Finlay, who sat with Glenn Campbell in his Nissan Micra Kit Car last year, when they finished second in Modified 5.

Donnelly started his competition career in the mid-1990s driving a Ford Mustang. A regular competitor in events on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, he has twice won the Atlantic Rally Cup in the United States. Champion in 2008 & ’09, he has been a regular podium finisher on events in Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee and has won the Black River Stages in up-state New York three years in a row.

Over the Easter weekend, he and co-driver Colin Fitzgerald tackled the Donnelly Group Circuit of Ireland Rally, at which the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) enjoyed a major presence as the final element of its European promotion for Sol RB12. Donnelly and Fitzgerald, who is a former Junior Champion Co-driver in the Irish West Coast Rally Championship, were in the Evo IX in which they will contest Sol RB12; run by Liam Ryan, boss of Ryan Rally Preparations, the car is sponsored by Eire Concrete Inc.

The entries from McQuillan and Donnelly now posted on-line at www.rallybarbados.bb have brought to a total of six those from Ireland, which is among the most rally-centric countries in Europe. Details of further entries are yet to be confirmed, as competitors make preparations for the shipping date from the British south coast port of Portsmouth in a little over two weeks’ time.

Countdown steps up a gear with Valvoline Shakedown Stages

The countdown to Sol Rally Barbados 2012, the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international, steps up a gear on Sunday, May 6, with the Valvoline Shakedown Stages, round three of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Virgin Atlantic Driver’s and Class Championships.

In advance of entries opening next Monday (April 23), Sol RB12 Chairman Barry Gale was at pains to emphasise the importance of the event: “Local competitors new to Sol Rally Barbados are reminded of the ASRs, which state that those who have not driven in a special stage rally before are required to drive in at least one such event before being considered eligible for Sol RB12 . . . the Valvoline Shakedown Stages is the last chance to tick this box.”

Entries can be made on-line under the Competitor tab at www.barbadosrallyclub.com, or at Motorsport Services, Haggatt Hall, St Michael, where all entry fees must be paid before the closing time of 4.00pm on Friday, April 27. The running order will be published at the Briefing Meeting, which will be held at 7.00pm on Thursday, May 3, at the Barbados Clay Target Shooting Association Club House, Searles, Christ Church.

Scrutineering will be held between noon and 5.00pm at Automotive Art’s Welches premises on Saturday, May 5, with the start of the Valvoline Shakedown Stages slated for 9.00am the following day; the service area will be in the Pool Plantation Yard, St John, which will also be the venue for the start, lunch halt, finish and planned post-event social. Twelve stages are scheduled, at two venues – Society to Pool and Bonwell to Malvern - each of which will be used six times, with three runs in each direction.

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

WELSH CREWS LINE UP FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS
Powell and Fennell finish second in NACAM opener


Image Courtesy of Graham Curry Photography

British rally engineer John Hardman will compete in Sol Rally Barbados (June 9/10) for the fifth time in 2012, as part of a three-car contingent from Wales, which brings to 25 the number of International crews now confirmed on the on-line entry list at www.rallybarbados.bb.

Born in Northern Ireland and based in Wales, Hardman won Group B on his debut in RB04 in the John Hardman Engineering Ford Fiesta 4wd; this year, he drives the same Ford Escort MkII, borrowed from nephew, ‘Dangerous Brian’ Hardman, which he used to finish third in SuperModified 10 in 2008. His co-driver in the Ian Rogers Bodyshop/AVO UK/PEC Tyres/Star Products/All Terrain/Chicken Pen Racing/Carole’s Cakes/Brian Hardman Builders and DTA Engine Management Systems-backed car, Welshman Sean Buckley, competes in Barbados for the first time after several visits to spectate.

Hardman won his class every time out last year in his Nissan Micra, the car which Bajan James Betts drove in last year’s Trackrod Rally in the UK; that car is also shipping to Barbados, where Hardman has made many friends, and found new customers.

Hardman took Gary Thomas and Phil Ralphs along to RB05, when they finished second in SM12 in a Mk II Escort, with Hardman-built Vauxhall engine; on their return in 2010, the Welsh crew retired. Thomas’s rally car rental business, Tsalta Motorsport, has restricted the former Welsh Road Rally and Tarmac Stage Champion’s rallying of late, while co-driver Ralphs has been busy organising events. Whichever car from the Tsalta fleet they bring, it will be backed by Cambrian Garages/Cambrian Land Rover.

England’s Stuart Deeley will compete for the first time, having learned of the event from Hardman, and travelled out in 2007. Three-time Association of North West Car Clubs (ANWCC) Stage Champion, most recently last year in his unique Lotus Europa – another Hardman creation – he will drive the Micra, backed by Demon Tweeks. His co-driver will be Alistair Dodd, also English, but living in Wales; he won three ANWCC titles last year, including Junior Co-Driver, and has sat with both Deeley and Hardman.

Powell and Fennell finish second in NACAM opener

Sol Rally Barbados regulars John Powell and Mike Fennell Jnr overcame extreme odds – they didn’t even have a rally car three hours before the start - to finish second in Puebla, Mexico, last weekend (April 20/21) in Rally Canadas, round one of the FIA NACAM Rally Championship.

For Powell, who represents his adopted homeland Trinidad & Tobago, it continues a fine vein of form, following victories in Jamaica last December and Trinidad in March in his Subaru Impreza WRC S14; fellow-Jamaican Fennell finished second in Trinidad, with regular driver Jeff Panton (Ford Focus WRC06).

For the NACAM events - there are five more rounds - Powell is driving a Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, run by Dom Buckley Motorsport (DBM) from the UK, with Jamaica’s Peter Clarke bringing experience of the championship, in which few English-speaking Caribbean crews compete, and the language to his role as team manager.

After walking through the Friday night Ceremonial Start with the Evo not yet released by Customs, Powell and Fennell had to wait until nearly 5.00am for it to arrive; the DBM crew gave it a quick check, while another regular UK visitor, Phil Marks, mapped the engine. Powell had his work cut out, facing the Evo IX of Mexico’s Ricardo Trivino, who has not only been in the World Rally Championship since 2002, but was also on home ground, so better prepared for temperature, humidity and altitude.

The Caribbean crew’s luck went from bad to worse, with no working intercom nearly all day – they relied on hand signals - no lunchtime service as the crew was delayed, then a fan failure, causing the engine to overheat. After six of the seven stages, however, they were reunited with service crew and intercom.

At nearly 29 kilometres, the final stage was easily the longest, around one-fifth of the distance . . . with everything working, Powell beat the local ace by 23 seconds to secure second place. Trivino won in 1h 28m 55.6s, with Powell 1m 11.1s behind.

Powell said: "Stage 7 proved that Ricardo is catchable, and we held back since he was on his home turf. His lines were perfect and you couldn't help but simply follow them. It will be interesting to see how things turn out on neutral ground."

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

OXFORD STUDENTS RETURN TO SOL RALLY BARBADOS
Category podium for Siddall sets up Caribbean trip


Image Courtesy of Jeff Bloxham

The Oxford Universities Motorsport Foundation is returning to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International for the fourth time in five years . . . and that is roughly the time it has taken the student body to rebuild from a bare shell its ‘new’ race and rally car, a 1966 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTV.

Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) represents a return to international rallying for the first time in a decade for the Italian sports saloon, which was spotted in 2006 as an abandoned shell, awaiting the scrap man. OUMF founder Ding Boston recalls: “It looked exactly like the kind of lost cause that would provide huge amounts of practical experience for the students!”

The car, which spent the first 30 or so years of its life in the dry, high veldt in South Africa, was converted for endurance rallying for Guernsey couple Geoff and Jennie Dorey. After a couple of shakedown events, including the 1999 Classic Marathon, they embarked on the famous Inca Trail round South America in 2001. Despite a major incident on the very first stage and a later 80mph collision with a llama, they completed the 15,000-mile epic in 55 days.

On their return, the Doreys decided that the Alfa was too tired to continue, so stripped everything they could use to have a similar Alfa rally car built from scratch, leaving the shell . . . and that is what the OUMF discovered five years later.

Boston continues: “The first move was to have the shell assessed on an Alfa chassis jig. Not only was the car straight, but it was comparatively rust free, so would make an excellent basis for a project. Every bit of paint, Peruvian filler and under-seal was stripped, along with any remaining components. Each stress crack was traced, drilled, and welded, with additional strengthening added where appropriate. An appeal for missing parts and running gear was launched, and advice and help from the best companies throughout the UK motor sport industry was sought in the renovation of parts found or kindly donated.”

OUMF is an independent, student-run initiative providing the encouragement and facility for 'hands-on' engineering experience. Of the Alfa project, Boston concludes: “Every aspect of the car provided a hands-on learning experience second to none, whether in the OUMF shed or at firms who generously welcomed the students to bring components to their workshops to teach and demonstrate their skills.”

Completed part-way through last year, the Alfa made its debut at the 2011 Goodwood Revival Meeting, and was subsequently raced at Snetterton in the east of England in October, where Boston finished fourth in class, and 10th overall! Over the winter - with Sol RB12 in mind - the car has undergone more modifications.

Sponsored by Phillips Tyres of Oxford/Geest Line/Huzier/NGK/Virgin Atlantic/Toyo Tires and Centor, the Alfa will be driven in Historic 1 by Boston, co-driven by Jon Pulliston, who sat with Boston twice in the OUMF’s 1965 Riley 1.5. After failing to complete all stages on its first two visits, the Riley finally achieved an overall finish in RB10, 46th and second of the four historic s that started the event.

Category podium for Siddall sets up Caribbean trip

Andrew Siddall and Carl Williamson finished third overall in Category 2 in Saturday’s (April 28) Pirelli Historic Rally, round three of the Kololi Beach Club MSA British Historic Rally Championship, fought out over nearly 50 miles of stages in the notorious Kielder forest. Fifth on the opening stage, they picked up their pace, finishing third, then second on the final two stages of the day, to finish 10th overall and third in C2.

A podium finish in the Siddall and Hilton Ford Escort RS2000 in their last outing before the car is delivered to Portsmouth for shipping to Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) sets them up well for their second visit to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International; last year, they finished 21st overall and won Historic 2.

From the ‘Pirelli’, based near the tyre manufacturer’s UK headquarters in Carlisle, the Escort must make the almost 400-mile trip south by early afternoon Thursday (May 3) to join nearly 30 other vehicles from the UK and Europe, which will be sailing to Barbados on the Geest freighter Benguela Stream early next week.

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

WINNING MARSHALS HEAD FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS
GPS support for competitors and spectators from BajanNav


Image Courtesy of Jonathan MacDonald/PaceNotes

Two volunteer marshals, with more than 30 years’ service to Irish motor sport between them, will shortly be starting the trip of a lifetime, as winners of an all expenses-paid trip to Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10), including return flights on Virgin Atlantic from London Gatwick, accommodation for 14 nights and rental car for the duration.

The prize draw was organised by the Barbados Rally Club in association with the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC), Pacenotes Rally Magazine and the Donnelly Group Circuit of Ireland, for the first time a round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC). It was the final component of the European promotion of Sol RB12, which has drawn a record-breaking International entry, including 10 crews from Ireland, more than half newcomers to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International.

The winners are 41-year-old rescue unit regular Philip Bryans from Belfast in Northern Ireland, where the ‘Circuit’ is based and 46-year-old all-rounder Sean Hayde, who made a nearly 600-mile round trip from his home in Enniskeane in County Cork, in the south of the Republic of Ireland, to work on the event.

A member of Ballynahinch & District Motor Club and volunteer for more than 15 years, Bryans worked at the Shakedown, the SuperSpecial in the Titanic Quarter in Belfast, then on the Legane and Lisburn stages. “I couldn’t believe it when I was told I had won,” he said. “You hear people winning the lottery who say it takes a while to sink in . . . that’s exactly how I felt. It must have taken about a week before it really hit me!

“After I got the call, I had to tell my boss. Straight away, he knew something had happened. He said ‘you look very pale, what’s wrong?’ I explained and we’ve been able to jiggle a few things around to let me get the time off work. Now I can’t wait to go!”

Hayde, a co-driver and event organiser at the Skibbereen & District MC as well as marshal, worked at Scrutiny, Shakedown and the Legane and Banbridge stages, but it was all rather last-minute: “I was supposed to be navigating for Jer O’Donovan but, in the end, we couldn’t compete. So, while I was driving to the event, I phoned Des O’Loan to tell him I was available to marshal.

“I’ve never been to Barbados but, believe it or not, I was planning to go within a couple of years. There are six of us down here and we have always talked about going but never got around to it for one reason or another. I’m really looking forward to it!”

Simon Mooney, Publisher of Pacenotes, which launched its 100th edition this week, said: “Its a great result. They are both rally mad, have been involved for more than 15 years, and live at opposite ends of the island! It could not have worked out better.”

The names of more than 600 marshals were entered into a random draw – they came from all aspects of the ‘Circuit’, including stage marshals, timekeeping and results, rescue and recovery, medical, communications, service parks and Rally HQ; the winners’ names were drawn out of the hat by reigning IRC Champion Andreas Mikkelsen.

The event’s Chief Marshal, Des O’Loan, said: “I know Philip and Sean will have a great time, but I can’t imagine them suddenly becoming spectators . . . they will want to get their hands dirty! Everyone in the draw was a signed-on official, some had worked on two or more days - the only volunteers not on the list were those who asked not to be, also the senior management team, as we did not think that was appropriate.”

GPS support for competitors and spectators from BajanNav

For the second year, AccuNav Ltd will be supporting Sol Rally Barbados, using John Mann’s BajanNav, the gps map of Barbados, launched in March 2010. The company will supply tailor-made POI files – ‘overlays’, which identify Points of Interest – for use in conjunction with BajanNav; one will help spectators find major rally locations, the other will provide additional competitor-specific information, particularly useful for newcomers.

BajanNav and the Sol RB POIs are free to download, while AccuNav agents will be on hand to provide BajanNav on SD cards if users do not want to install it themselves. As BajanNav is compatible with Garmin GPS devices, overseas visitors can bring their own units, or rent one along with a hire car. A link to BajanNav will shortly be posted on the home page of the official event web site. www.rallybarbados.bb.

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

LOCAL CREWS SHAKE DOWN FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS
Scrutineering Saturday at Automotive Art, Welches


Image Courtesy of Sean Chandler

Nearly 50 cars are entered for Sunday’s (May 6) Valvoline Shakedown Stages, as local crews use the island’s first tarmac rally of the year as a crucial part of their preparations for Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10), while the organising Barbados Rally Club (BRC) fine tunes its event management systems in advance of the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International.

Sunday’s event is round three of the BRC Virgin Atlantic Driver’s and Class Championships, and the start of a busy time for competitors: with Shell V-Power King of the Hill on June 3, and each day of Sol RB12 a separate round of the championship, there are four points-scoring opportunities over the next six weekends.

Rally fans eager to soak up the latest news are invited to Scrutineering between noon and 5.00pm tomorrow (Saturday) at Automotive Art, Welches; there will be Valvoline give-aways, the first chance to buy 2012 Automotive Art rally gear, with food and drinks also on sale. Among the cars bound to attract attention is the unusual Lotus Exige, which will be campaigned by Stan Hartling, representing the Turks & Caicos Islands, with co-driver Andy Proudfoot from Canada.

The Valvoline Shakedown Stages will start at 9.00am from Pool Plantation Yard, St John, which is the venue for the service area, lunch break, finish and planned post-event social. There are 12 stages, giving a total distance of around 42 kilometres: in the morning, there will be three runs each from Blackmans to Malvern (2.90kms) and from Society to Pool (4.20kms); after lunch and a 1.00pm restart, the stages will be reversed and run Malvern to Blackmans followed by Pool to Society.

The most successful driver in recent Shakedown Stages history, with three wins in the past five years, Paul Bourne is seeded at number one in his Ford Focus WRC07; his local season has started well, winning two of three events staged so far. Sol Rally Barbados winner for the past two years Roger Skeete (Subaru Impreza WRC S12) starts at two, with Sean Gill (Suzuki SX4 WRC) at three.

Seeded fourth is Roger Hill (Toyota Corolla WRC), the only driver with a perfect top 10 record in the Shakedown Stages over the past five years – aside from his 2009 win, he has finished second, third and fourth (twice) – with Trinidad’s John Powell (Impreza WRC S14) and Dean Serrao (Impreza WRC S9) rounding out the Modified 8-WRC entry.

Completing a total of 10 four-wheel-drive cars, Avinash Chatrani (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI) is alone in M8-A, while Geoff Noel, Mark Hamilton (both Evo IXs) and Andrew Mallalieu (Impreza N10) will resume their tussle for Group N honours.

While the overall battle will hold the attention of many, competition will be hot among the leading two-wheel-drive crews. Very evenly-matched, Neil Armstrong (Toyota Starlet) and Ian Warren (Suzuki Swift) have between them been the giant-killers of the past couple of seasons, also highest-placed 2wd in the Shakedown Stages, Warren in 2009 & ’10, Armstrong last year.

They have already shown strong form in local events this year, but others are keen to join the party. The strongest challengers include two former winners of the Caribbean Motor Racing Championship (CMRC), Stuart Maloney and Roger Mayers, both also Rally Barbados winners, Maloney as co-driver to Bourne in 2007, Mayers driving his self-engineered Ford Focus two years earlier.

Maloney’s Peugeot 306 Maxi and the Starlet that Mayers shares with brother Barry have also both been at the sharp end of 2wd competition in the last year, but it’s an arena which is becoming ever more crowded. Other contenders include the BMW M3s of Logan Watson and brothers Owen and Sammy Cumberbatch, all of whom have finished in the top 10 in the Shakedown Stages in the last five years.

While those drivers contest the SuperModified classes, the Modified classes also promise action. Front-runners here so far have been Daryl Clarke (Honda Civic) and Neil Corbin (Starlet), while Jamal Brathwaite (Mitsubishi Mirage RS), Kyle Catwell (Volkswagen Golf GTI), double circuit racing Champion Eddie Corbin, armed with the ex-Freddie Gale Toyota Corolla RunX, and Jeremy Sisnett (Ford Fiesta) are all in the mix.

Sol Rally Barbados, Shell V-Power King of the Hill and the Valvoline Shakedown Stages are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

Sol RB12-25a: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – May 4, 2012

VALVOLINE SHAKEDOWN STAGES
Provisional running order at May 4

1 Paul Bourne/Megan Bryant (M8-WRC Chefette/LIME/Banks/Slam 101/MQI/Castrol Ford Focus WRC07)
2 Roger Skeete/Louis Venezia (M8-WRC Sol/Michelin/Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre/Simpson Motors Subaru Impreza WRC S12)
3 Sean Gill/Michael Cummins (M8-WRC Simpson Motors/Automotive Art/Monster Energy/Shell V-Power Suzuki SX4 WRC)
4 Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (M8-WRC Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC)
5 John Powell - TRI/Nicholas Telfer - TRI (M8-WRC Intercontinental Shipping/Trinidad Mooring & Launch Services/FT Farfan/Shell Subaru Impreza WRC S14)
6 Dean Serrao/Clint Gregory (M8-WRC Sugar Ultra Lounge/Rush Restaurant Subaru Impreza WRC S9)
7 Avinash Chatrani/Martin Goddard (M8-A Electric Avenue/Hankook/Solder Seal Gunk/Lubriguard/Sign Station Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI)
8 Mark Hamilton/Clive Howell (P4 CIBC-FCIB/Simpson Motors/MAXI Malta/PowerMaster/Boston Seasoning/Automotive Art Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)
9 Andrew Mallalieu/Jeremy Foster (P4 Terra Caribbean Subaru Impreza N10) 10 Geoff Noel/Kreigg Yearwood (P4 Globe Finance/Sentry Insurance Brokers/Cargo Solutions International Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)
11 Neil Armstrong/Barry Ward (SM10 Chefette/Lubriguard/Hankook/Nassco/Redline Fuels/ARMAG Rentals Toyota Starlet)
12 Ian Warren/Robert Warren (SM10 Automotive Art/Simpson Motors/Degree Suzuki Swift)
14 Stuart Maloney/Trevor Perkins (SM11 Automotive Art/Sign Station/Valvoline Peugeot 306 Maxi)
15 Roger Mayers/Barry Mayers (SM9 Chefette/Digicel/Automotive Art/Illusion Graphics Toyota Starlet)
16 Logan Watson/Rhett Watson (SM11 Oreo/Chips Ahoy!/Club Social/Formula1 High Performance Auto Care Products/Liquid Wrench/Sign Depot/The Unknown Entity/In support of Little Pink Gift BMW M3)
17 Brian Gill/Heath Hazell (SM11 Coca Cola BMW M3)
18 Alex Whitehead/Brian Hurley (SM11 AM Electrical Solutions/Sign Station BMW 328i)
19 Andrew Jones/Kurt Ward (SM11 AP Jones Pharmacy/Panadol/Lucozade Ford Escort MkII) 20 Nigel Reece/David Reece (SM10 Subzero Services/IGM Air Conditioners/Ullyetts Machine Shop Service/Valvoline/Gatorade/Frito-Lay/Trident International Ford Escort MkI)
21 Ralph White/Joe Troulan (SM10 Barbados Villa Services/Island Safari/Amsoil Toyota Starlet)
22 Paul Horton - TCI/Kristian Yearwood (SM10 Sky Motor Sport/H Racing/Java Island Ford Escort MkI)
23 Clifford Cox/Scott Bentham (SM9 PondFly Toyota Starlet)
24 Carlos Edwards/Andre Waithe (SM9 Courts I-Finance/Enermax Toyota Starlet)
25 Jeremy Gonsalves/Christopher Corbin (SM9 Makita/Quik Start Auto/Star Products Opel Corsa)
26 Allan Maynard/Marcus Beck (SM9 Marshall Trading/Lubriguard/Roberts Manufacturing Toyota Starlet)
27 Andrew Skeete/Andrew Croney (SM9 Sonic Industrial & Mechanical Hand Tools/Hankook Mitsubishi Lancer GSR)
28 Kyle Catwell/Norman Catwell (M7 Chicken Pen Racing/Kumho/Valvoline/Mackeson/Ellesmere Quarries Volkswagen Golf GTI)
29 Daryl Clarke/Russell Brancker (M7 Ellco Rentals/Mom's Pasta Products/MQI/Roberts Manufacturing Honda Civic) 30 Edward Corbin/Rodney Clarke (M7 Valvoline/Automotive Art Toyota Corolla RunX)
31 John Corbin/Owen Proverbs (M7 Valvoline/Automotive Art Toyota Corolla)
32 Sean Field/Darnley Rayside (M7 Beacon Insurance/Castrol/Landscapes in Harmony/Field Insurance Brokers/Ackee Tree Restaurant Peugeot 306 GTi6)
33 Freddie Gale/Kyle Proverbs (M7 Gale’s Hatcheries/Nassco/Redline Fuels/VP Racing Fuels Toyota Corolla RunX)
34 Jeremy Sisnett/Justin Sisnett (M7 Ford Fiesta ST)
35 Jamal Brathwaite/Dario Hoyte (M6 Valvoline/Mackeson/Kumho/Ellesmere Quarries/Codgi’s Customs Brokers/Chicken Pen Racing/AutoPlus Motors Mitsubishi Mirage RS)
36 Neil Corbin/Ryan Corbin (M6 Nassco/Jason Jones/Auto Solutions/Castrol Toyota Starlet)
37 Sean Cox/Adam Cox (M5 Simpson Motors/Gliptone/Johnsen’s Suzuki Swift Gti)
38 Rhett D’Andrade/Tristan Gibbs (M6 Daihatsu Charmant)
39 Rommell Martin/Alex Kellman (M5 VV&K Rentals/B3 Imagining/Shine Auto Care/Leroy Body Workshop Toyota Starlet) 40 Shareef Walcott/Rashid Phillips (M6 Castrol/Melwani’s/Rallymaxx/Sammy Lee Towing & Recovery Toyota Corolla)
41 Jeremy Croney/Christian Sampson (Club Peugeot 206)
42 Stan Hartling – TCI/Andy Proudfoot - CDN (SM11 Lotus Exige)
43 Pierre Lashley/Dwayne Forde (SM11 Financial and Tax Consultants/Storey's Distribution/Scud Sports/Kyle Lashley's Customs Brokers/DSD Eurotuning/JAHAD Enterprises/H2O Solutions BMW 325i)
44 Randy Reid/Owen Cumberbatch (SM11 BMW M3)
45 Paul Inniss/Jan-Yves Hinds (P2 HIV Aids Commission/Illusion Graphics/Bartex Concrete Works/Downes Auto Body Repair/Erie Tyre Services/J’s Freighting Honda Civic)
46 Fabien Clarke/Arlington Hoyte (P2 Barbados Business Listings/RCR Tours/Bovell Auto Repair/Simple Trucking Suzuki Ignis Sport)

Sol Rally Barbados, Shell V-Power King of the Hill and the Valvoline Shakedown Stages are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

SKEETE MAKES A POINT BEFORE SOL RALLY BARBADOS
Shakedown proves valuable for local crews


Image Courtesy of Sean Chandler / vtcaribbean.com

Rallying the familiar Subaru Impreza WRC S12 in its new livery for the first time, Roger Skeete and Louis Venezia won the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Valvoline Shakedown Stages on Sunday (May 6) by just under 10 seconds from Trinidad’s John Powell. On a day of changing fortunes, Skeete won four of the 10 stages, Powell and last year’s winner Paul Bourne sharing the other six equally.

Skeete’s victory was overshadowed, however, by the late-afternoon incident in which motor sport journalist Trevor Thorpe and Island Constable Samuel Hackett were injured after being struck by a competing car. While prompt action by the BRC’s emergency services resulted in their swift transfer to QEH - both were discharged overnight after thorough tests - the mood on Sunday evening was muted.

On Monday, Clerk of the Course Barry Gale said: “It is excellent news that they have been discharged, and I would like to echo everyone’s best wishes to both gentlemen. I must say a massive ‘thank-you’, not just to Dr Brian Charles and our own emergency services team, but also for the impressive response from a number of medically-trained spectators, who assisted in whatever way they could.”

Satisfied with his day’s work in the Sol, Michelin, Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre and Simpson Motors-backed Impreza, Skeete said: “We had no problems, as we had prepared well for the event. The shakedown served its purpose, because we know some little areas we have to work on.”

For Powell, co-driven in the Intercontinental Shipping/Trinidad Mooring & Launch Services/FT Farfan/Shell Impreza WRC S14 by local hero Trevor Manning, it was a step in the right direction, ahead of Sol Rally Barbados (June 9/10): “I enjoyed having Trevor sitting next to me, and it was definitely good to win a few stages, as I’ve never actually won stages in Barbados. I’m looking forward to next month, because the car and the driver have the potential . . . but it will be a tight one.”

Third–placed Sean Gill was another driver happy with the outcome: “We were a bit slow at the start, but were able to do top three times all day. It was a good shakedown and the car was flawless.” In the Simpson Motors/Automotive Art/Monster Energy/Shell V-Power Suzuki SX4 WRC, Gill and Michael Cummins were six seconds behind Powell.

Neil Armstrong and Barry Ward came fourth overall in the SuperModified 10 Chefette/Lubriguard/Hankook/Nassco/Redline Fuels/ARMAG Rentals Toyota Starlet; Skeete was the only driver they did not beat at least once and they led two-wheel-drive all day, despite minor brake issues.

Behind them came Stuart Maloney/Trevor Perkins (Automotive Art/Sign Station/Valvoline Peugeot 306 Maxi) and Roger and Barry Mayers, battling gearbox problems with the Chefette/Digicel/Automotive Art/Illusion Graphics Toyota Starlet. They were eighth and 10th overall and winners, respectively, of SM11 and SM9.

Seeded at number one with Megan Bryant co-driving the Chefette/LIME/Banks/Slam 101/MQI/Castrol Ford Focus WRC07, Bourne lost 10secs with a launch control problem on the first stage, then had recurring issues. He finished fifth, ahead of the remaining Modified 8-WRC drivers, Roger Hill (Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC) and Dean Serrao (Sugar Ultra Lounge/Rush Restaurant Impreza WRC S9).

Hill said: “I still don’t think the car is working up to scratch and we had an interesting moment in the fast right before the Colleton 90, which was not a flat sixth-gear corner for me . . . but I tried to make it one, ending up well into the field, but I kept my foot down and got it back on the road.”

Winner Geoff Noel (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) was ninth overall, winning Group N by nine seconds from Andrew Mallalieu (Impreza N10), who had one of his best outings since returning to the sport: “We won two Malvern runs in the morning, and were trading times with Geoff after lunch, which is a big improvement over last year.” Mark Hamilton (Evo IX) had been in the mix early on, leading by nearly two seconds when a selector shaft split on stage six, “a minor issue with a major consequence,” as he noted.

There were some stellar 2wd performances down the order, with M7 winner Daryl Clarke (Honda Civic), SM10 runner-up Ralph White (Starlet) and the SM11 BMW M3s of Brian Gill and Logan Watson all missing out on top 10 stage times by less than a second, Watson on no fewer than three occasions.

Sol Rally Barbados, Shell V-Power King of the Hill and the Valvoline Shakedown Stages are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com



VALVOLINE SHAKEDOWN STAGES
Provisional results

1st Roger Skeete/Louis Venezia (M8-WRC Sol/Michelin/Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre/Simpson Motors Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 19m 49.27s 2nd John Powell - TRI/Trevor Manning (M8-WRC Intercontinental Shipping/Trinidad Mooring & Launch Services/FT Farfan/Shell Subaru Impreza WRC S14), 19m 59.15s 3rd Sean Gill/Michael Cummins (M8-WRC Simpson Motors/Automotive Art/Monster Energy/Shell V-Power Suzuki SX4 WRC), 20m 05.84s 4th Neil Armstrong/Barry Ward (SM10 Chefette/Lubriguard/Hankook/Nassco/Redline Fuels/ARMAG Rentals Toyota Starlet), 20m 13.72s 5th Paul Bourne/Megan Bryant (M8-WRC Chefette/LIME/Banks/Slam 101/MQI/Castrol Ford Focus WRC07), 20m 16.24s 6th Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (M8-WRC Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC), 20m 51.39s 7th Dean Serrao/Clint Gregory (M8-WRC Sugar Ultra Lounge/Rush Restaurant Subaru Impreza WRC S9), 21m 15.06s 8th Stuart Maloney/Trevor Perkins (SM11 Automotive Art/Sign Station/Valvoline Peugeot 306 Maxi), 21m 16.54s 9th Geoff Noel/Kreigg Yearwood (P4 Globe Finance/Sentry Insurance Brokers/Cargo Solutions International Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 21m 26.80s 10th Roger Mayers/Barry Mayers (SM9 Chefette/Digicel/Automotive Art/Illusion Graphics Toyota Starlet), 21m 26.94s etc Modified 8-WRC: 1st Skeete/Venezia; 2nd Powell/Manning; 3rd S Gill/Cummins; etc Modified 8-A: 1st Avinash Chatrani/Martin Goddard (Electric Avenue/Hankook/Solder Seal Gunk/Lubriguard/Sign Station Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI) Production 4: 1st Noel/Yearwood; 2nd Andrew Mallalieu/Jeremy Foster (Terra Caribbean Subaru Impreza N10); 3rd Mark Hamilton/Clive Howell (CIBC-FCIB/Simpson Motors/MAXI Malta/PowerMaster/Boston Seasoning/Automotive Art Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) SuperModified 11: 1st Maloney/Perkins; 2nd Logan Watson/Rhett Watson (Oreo/Chips Ahoy!/Club Social/Formula1 High Performance Auto Care Products/Liquid Wrench/Sign Depot/The Unknown Entity/In support of Little Pink Gift BMW M3); 3rd, Brian Gill/Heath Hazell (Coca Cola BMW M3); etc
SM10: 1st Armstrong/Ward; 2nd Ralph White/Joe Troulan (Barbados Villa Services/Island Safari/Amsoil Toyota Starlet); 3rd Nigel Reece/David Reece (Subzero Services/IGM Air Conditioners/Ullyetts Machine Shop Service/Valvoline/Gatorade/Frito-Lay/Trident International Ford Escort MkI); etc
SM9: 1st Mayers/Mayers; 2nd Allan Maynard/Marcus Beck (Marshall Trading/Lubriguard/Roberts Manufacturing Toyota Starlet); 3rd Carlos Edwards/Andre Waithe (Courts I-Finance/Enermax Toyota Starlet); etc
M7: 1st Daryl Clarke/Russell Brancker (Ellco Rentals/Mom's Pasta Products/MQI/Roberts Manufacturing Honda Civic); 2nd Kyle Catwell/Norman Catwell (Chicken Pen Racing/Kumho/Valvoline/Mackeson/Ellesmere Quarries Volkswagen Golf GTI); 3rd Sean Field/Darnley Rayside (Beacon Insurance/Castrol/Landscapes in Harmony/Field Insurance Brokers/Ackee Tree Restaurant Peugeot 306 GTi6); etc
M6: 1st Jamal Brathwaite/Dario Hoyte (Valvoline/Mackeson/Kumho/Ellesmere Quarries/Codgi’s Customs Brokers/Chicken Pen Racing/AutoPlus Motors Mitsubishi Mirage RS); 2nd Jeremy Croney/Damien Johnson (Peugeot 206); 3rd Shareef Walcott/Rashid Phillips (Castrol/Melwani’s/Rallymaxx/Sammy Lee Towing & Recovery Toyota Corolla); etc
P2: 1st Fabien Clarke/Arlington Hoyte (Barbados Business Listings/RCR Tours/Bovell Auto Repair/Simple Trucking Suzuki Ignis Sport); 2nd Paul Inniss/Jan-Yves Hinds (HIV Aids Commission/Illusion Graphics/Bartex Concrete Works/Downes Auto Body Repair/Erie Tyre Services/J’s Freighting Honda Civic)

Sol Rally Barbados, Shell V-Power King of the Hill and the Valvoline Shakedown Stages are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

CURLEY NEARLY MISSES THE BOAT TO THE CARIBBEAN
Swann in good spirits, “can’t wait” for Sol Rally Barbados


Image Courtesy of Graham Curry Photography

Ireland’s Ronan Curley nearly missed Tuesday’s (May 8) trans-Atlantic Geest Line voyage from Portsmouth, as a last-minute gearbox problem threatened to ruin his plans to compete in Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) . . . and he has fellow-competitor Samuel Kelso and Ford Escort specialists Den Motorsport to thank that it didn’t.

Having followed the event in recent years, Curley and close friend Conor McMeel both decided to enter their Vauxhall-engined MkII Ford Escorts in the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International. Curley said: “Barbados clashes with the Donegal Rally, which we have competed in since 2003, but I decided to do something different this year. After watching our friend Kris Meeke win the rally twice, we decided along with another good friend Conor McMeel to go for it!”

But all did not go smoothly in the final run-up to the 1000-mile round trip to Portsmouth, as Curley explains: “We were literally about to put the car on the trailer and our gearbox broke. Tractive was closed for holidays, so there were no spare parts. We have Samuel Kelso and Den Motorsport to thank - Samuel gave us his gearbox, so we raced down to Den Motorsport, where the boys changed it from his car to ours and put the car on the transporter to Portsmouth just in the nick of time!”

Curley, from Limavady, Co Londonderry, was born into a rallying family and this Escort is shared between himself and his brother. Father Cathal was one of the country’s top drivers in the 1970s and ‘80s, winning the Circuit of Ireland – a five-day marathon back then – plus the Donegal, Manx and Ulster rallies in a Porsche 911RS, before driving a works 240Z for Datsun and a Lancia Stratos for the Chequered Flag Team.

With co-driver John McKinley, Curley Junior has been rallying since 1998, with numerous top 10 finishes – well-driven MkII Escorts regularly finish in the top five overall in Irish National events – including a class win on the ‘Circuit’ and class podiums in Donegal and on the Sligo Stages.

Curley’s NIIB Finance/Premier Car Parts Escort, which will run in SuperModified 11, is built to what he describes as “ultimate Irish tarmac specification”, with a 2.5-litre John Read Racing Vauxhall engine, pumping out around 315bhp, Reiger fully-adjustable suspension and AP brakes on 15-inch wheels. While McMeel’s CMM Electrics-backed car, his second MkII, produces a more modest 287bhp from its 2-litre Vauxhall engine, he should still make an impression in SM10.

McMeel, who lives an hour or so from Curley in Toomebridge, Co Antrim, which is also home to British Superbike Championship front-runners John and Michael Laverty, began rallying in 1991 in his first MkII. He has been partnered by co-driver Sean Devlin for 15 years, tackling similar events to Curley, including the ‘Circuit’, Donegal International and Ulster Rally. Devlin, who lives in Magherafelt, Co Derry, is also currently competing in a works Nissan Micra, in which he has been both driver and co-driver.

Swann in good spirits, “can’t wait” for Sol Rally Barbados

England’s Rob Swann, who finished fifth last year with Welsh co-driver Darren Garrod in a rented Subaru Impreza WRC S12, “can’t wait” Sol Rally Barbados 2012, despite having no chance to test his completely rebuilt Revolution Wheels/Waves Hotel Impreza.

As he explained earlier in the year, “the WRC hire option was not possible due to a lack of cars so, with future events in mind, I decided to build a B13 spec Impreza.” The N14 in which he won Group N in Barbados and Jamaica in 2010 has undergone a major upgrade at TEG Sport in the north of England: stripped to a bare shell, lightened, then dipped and re-sprayed, it now has a WRC build spec engine, with a six-speed sequential gearbox and active centre diff. Unfortunately, the planned completion by the end of March did not happen, so there has been no testing.

Last week, Swann said: “We did a few runs up and down a section of road near TEG to check diff maps and anti-lag settings. The car feels good, and very familiar; it is very much my Group N car - even the seats are original - so the feeling is good. We have changed from Ohlins to Reiger dampers, so there’s a bit to do there, and the sequential gearbox is new for me, but has flat shift and is fairly easy to use. I just can't wait!”

Sol Rally Barbados and Shell V-Power King of the Hill are organised and promoted by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB12 is the 23rd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the fifth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.bb; www.barbadosrallyclub.com

no mate nothing planned...