SOL RALLY BARBADOS REWARDS SPORT’S VOLUNTEERS

  Volunteer marshals and officials working on the Cartell.ie Killarney Rally of the Lakes in Ireland next month will have the chance to win a trip to Sol Rally Barbados 2013 (June 1/2), courtesy of the Barbados Rally Club (BRC), organisers of the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International.   The prize-winner whose name is ‘pulled from the hat’ will enjoy an all-expenses-paid return trip across the Atlantic in the latest of a series of promotions organised in association with the Caribbean island’s private-sector Tourism Development Corporation (TDC) and Ireland’s Pacenotes Rally Magazine.   Neil Barnard, the BRC’s PRO, explains: “Over the past three years, with the valuable support of the TDC, the Club has offered prize trips to competitors, spectators and marshals . . . and it is those volunteers without whom motor sport simply could not survive that we are concentrating on again this year.   “These competitions have been at the core of our European promotion of Sol Rally Barbados, which has resulted in a significant growth in first-time competitor numbers, particularly from Ireland. Of the 20 new crews entered last year and already confirmed for Sol RB13, 14 have come from Ireland.”   The ongoing marketing programme has resulted in valuable returns for Barbados in terms of increased visitors; with the growth in competitor numbers comes an automatic increase in friends and family, further boosted by the first-ever package deal offered for the BRC’s blue riband event, which quickly attracted 50 takers.   Run over the May Day weekend (May 3-5), the Rally of the Lakes is a round of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, the Southern 4 Rally Championship and – for the first time in Ireland – the FIA European Historic Rally Championship. After a Friday evening Ceremonial Start in Killarney Town Centre, there will be two days of rallying, with approximately 150 stage miles.   Pacenotes publisher Simon Mooney said: “It’s great to be able to put something back into the sport, and I’ve seen first hand what a fantastic welcome our winner will get. Volunteers are the life-blood of motor sport the world over, and I saw the same enthusiasm and commitment in Barbados as we’re used to at home. Whoever wins will certainly enjoy themselves . . . but might find it difficult not to join in!”   Clerk of the Course Dermot Healy said: “We hear more and more about Sol Rally Barbados, as the Irish contingent seems to grow every year. On behalf of all our volunteers, I’d like to thank the Barbados Rally Club for this terrific opportunity. I know that whoever wins it will fully deserve the prize.”   All signed-on volunteers and marshals over the age of 17 will be eligible for the draw, to be made after the event. The prize includes return flights on Virgin Atlantic from London Gatwick, accommodation for 12 nights and rental car for the duration.     Gallagher and Hardman confirm return visits   Further evidence of the links between Barbados and Ireland comes with confirmation that Peter Gallagher will compete in Sol RB for the eighth time this year, while British rally engineer John Hardman – he was born in Northern Ireland, but is based in Wales - will clock up his sixth appearances.   Gallagher’s early visits were as co-driver to long-term Irish rallying buddy, Martin Taylor; they finished 37th overall and won Production 2 in 2004, after which Gallagher drove a variety of Peugeots, claiming another class win, in P3, in a 306 in 2008. Last year, he took the Talbot Samba in which he won class and overall Group A titles in the Irish National Championship in the 1980s out of storage, where it had lain since 1997.   For 2013, he reverts to the Dublin Crystal/Greenspeed R & D/Sam Andrew Jewellers Peugeot 206 in which he finished 39th overall and fifth in Modified 6 in 2010; he will have local co-driver Rene Forde on the notes. Gallagher says: “I always have a great time in Barbados, and look forward to returning to the ‘Jewel of the Caribbean’.”   For his sixth crack at the island’s premier event, Hardman will drive the Nissan Micra campaigned in Barbados last year by England’s Stuart Deeley and backed by Chicken Pen Racing/PEC Tyres; Hardman will have Trinidad’s Vishal Dhanraj as co-driver.   Hardman won Group B on his debut in RB04 in his unusual self-built four-wheel-drive Ford Fiesta, but has had mixed results since. He has developed many long-term relationships with island competitors, however, not least those who compete under the wing of Chicken Pen Racing, Norman Catwell’s rallying collective, which has encouraged and helped a number of newcomers into the sport in recent years.   Sol Rally Barbados (June 1/2) and Scotiabank King of the Hill (May 26) are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB13 is the 24th running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the sixth 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.net; www.barbadosrallyclub.com