Rally

  With four weeks to go before entries close for the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international, Sol Rally Barbados (June 4/5), the on-line total reached the new overall entry cap of 100 on Thursday . . . but the organising Barbados Rally Club (BRC) is urging those still keen to take part to go on-line and enter before Friday May 6.

  The Barbados Rally Club’s decision introduce new incentives to target crowd-pleasing two-wheel-drive cars from overseas for its premier event, Sol Rally Barbados 2011 (June 4/5), is continuing to bear fruit – on-line entries for two more Ford Escorts from the UK have this week been confirmed on the official web site (www.rallybarbados.bb), bringing to eight the number of first-time entries in the two-wheel-drive categories.

The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Virgin Atlantic Driver’s Champion of 2009, Geoff Noel, and returnee to the sport Jason Cozier are the joint leaders of this year’s BRC Driver’s Championship after two rounds . . . but there is a long way to go in what promises to be one of the most competitive seasons in recent history.

Sol Rally Barbados 2011 (June 4/5), the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international, will host the second round of the G-WRC – an acronym for Gentleman's World Rally Class - an informal competition between island regular Steve Perez and fellow historic rallying enthusiasts, South African Geoff Bell and Britain’s Andrew Siddall.

Within a week of winning last month’s Rallye Sunseeker National on England’s south coast, Roger Duckworth confirmed that he and co-driver Aled Davies would definitely be taking up their prize drive on Sol Rally Barbados 2011 (June 4/5); the 1998 UK National Rally Champion’s entry brings to seven the number of cars currently confirmed in the WRC class, with two months to go before entries close.

After months starved of action, motor sport fans in Barbados are looking forward to the start of the new season. The Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) 2011 programme has already kicked off with its opening autocross and Safari events, while the coming weekend will give fans a chance to get up close and personal with competitors and their cars at a fresh new event to launch the season.

England’s Rob Swann and Welsh co-driver Darren Garrod, who made regional motor sport history in 2010 by becoming the first crew to win Group N in both Rally Barbados and Rally Jamaica in the same year, have upped their game for their next trip to the Caribbean, aiming for outright victory in Sol Rally Barbados 2011 (June 4/5).

Four-time Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Group Champion Neil Armstrong finished 13th overall and 10th in class in Rallye Sunseeker International yesterday (February 26), despite battling with a high fever throughout the opening round of the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship (DTBRC). Backed by the Sol Group and the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC), Armstrong and co-driver Max Ferri were entered in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, prepared by MSR Motorsport and fully liveried to promote Sol Rally Barbados 2011 (June 4/5), the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international.

Former UK National Rally Champion Paul Bird will return to Sol Rally Barbados (June 4/5) this year with one aim in mind . . . victory in the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international; he will once again campaign his Ford Focus WRC08, but in its new Frank Bird Poultry livery, and shod with DMACK tyres.

When four-time Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Group Champion Neil Armstrong takes the start in the opening round of the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship (DTBRC) - Rallye Sunseeker International (February 25/26) - he will be representing his Caribbean island home against first-class drivers from eight other nations.