SOL RALLY BARBADOS OVERSUBSCRIBED
Meeke and Bird get timely confidence boost for Caribbean trip
The strongest entry in the 20-year history of the Barbados Rally Club's (BRC) blue riband event will assemble in three weeks' time for the Caribbean's biggest annual international celebration of motor sport, Sol Rally Barbados 2009 (May 29-31) . . . and success this weekend has provided a timely confidence boost for last year's top two crews.
Sol RB08 winners, Northern Ireland's Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle, now lead the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC), fast replacing the World Rally Championship as the sport's most marketable high-end product; adding victory in the Peugeot UK/Kronos Racing S2000 Peugeot 207 in the rain-shortened Rally of the Azores on Saturday to their earlier win in Brazil, they become the first crew to win two IRC rounds this year.
Meanwhile, England's Paul Bird and Ian Windress (Ford Focus WRC07) increased their chances of adding a second UK National Championship to the title they won in 2005 by winning the Manx Telecom Rally, another rain-affected event run on an island, hopefully not a bad omen; for Superbike team owner Bird, whose successes there include road racing legend Joey Dunlop's final Isle of Man TT victory on one of Bird's machines, it was an emotional win after eight years of trying.
Both are entered for Sol RB09 in Subaru Impreza WRC S9s; Meeke is sponsored by Red Bull and local companies Digicel and ARMAG, while 'Birdy' carries over his UK backers, SuperCasino.com, Vent Axia and VK Vodka Kick. The provisional entry list published today (May 11) includes four more previous winners; 10-time winner Roger Skeete will lead the local defence in his recently-acquired S12, backed up by 2003 and '07 winner Paul Bourne (S9) and Trevor Manning (Ford Escort WRC), who won in 1999.
Jamaica's Jeffrey Panton - winner in 1998 - makes his first appearance in Barbados in the ex-Colin McRae Ford Focus WRC02 in which he won Rally Jamaica 2008, while the Toyota Corolla WRC in which Meeke won Sol RB08 is now campaigned by local ace Roger Hill, who won last week's Automotive Art Shakedown Stages. Adding to that list the 2004 UK National Champion, Steve Perez, who finished fifth on the Isle of Man on Saturday in his Kick Energy Focus WRC07, and fellow-Brit Kevin Procter (S7), means only those very confident of their predictions should be placing bets.
Despite the pressures of the worldwide economic downturn, the Club's maximum of 90 entries has been exceeded, testament to the special appeal of the event, according to Rally Chairman Barry Gale: "I don't mind admitting I've been totally bowled over by the support we have from our overseas competitors; when we opened entries back in January, I was very nervous about how things would turn out.
"But what we have been finding is that many European competitors, faced with tighter budgets, have decided to 'cherry pick' a smaller number of events, perhaps a special trip they have always wanted to make; while return visitors like Steve Perez, Kevin Procter and Martin Stockdale, have kept us on their list, we have some interesting newcomers."
Among these are Glenn Campbell and Simon Michael from Ireland, who drive Nissan Micra and Ford Escort MkII respectively; already hard at work publicising his visit - and the event - Michael told the popular Irish CarSport magazine: "Glenn and myself had been thinking about this event for a couple of years, and I found myself reducing the number that I could participate in, so it was an obvious choice. The Barbados Rally Club really help you out with the arrangements."
Their entries help spread the overseas interest right through the field - only one or two of the BRC's regular classifications will be without a battle between local drivers and visitors from either the region or Europe.
Sol Rally Barbados 2009 provisional entry headline statistics:
+ 92 crews entered, including reserves
+ drivers or co-drivers from nine nations, including Barbados
+ 25 four-wheel-drive cars, including nine WRC
+ 38 drivers or co-drivers from Europe
+ nine drivers or co-drivers from around the region
+ one female driver, 13 female co-drivers
+ cars from 18 manufacturers, Toyota the best-represented with 20, followed by Mitsubishi (15), Ford (13) and Subaru (11)
Sol Rally Barbados 2009 (May 29-31) and Shell V-Power King of the Hill (May 24) are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007; title sponsor is the Sol Group. Marketing partners are Automotive Art, Banks, Digicel, McEnearney Quality, Red Bull and Simpson Motors; official partners are the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association, Barbados Tourism Authority, Divi Southwinds Beach Resort, Geest Line, Stoute's Car Rental and Virgin Atlantic Airways; associate sponsors are ARMAG, Caribbean Airlines, Crane & Equipments, Merville Lynch Productions, Little Switzerland and Shelbury Construction.
For further information:
media contact - robin@bradfax.com
web site - www.rallybarbados.bb
Sol-RB09-26a: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 11, 2009
SOL RALLY BARBADOS 2009
Provisional entry list at May 11
+ some classifications subject to scrutineering of overseas entries
+ list is provisional and includes reserves
+ driver/co-driver (car) - listed alphabetically by class
Key to nationalities (competitor from Barbados unless shown):
ENG - England; IRL - The Republic of Ireland; JAM - Jamaica; NED - The Netherlands; NIR - Northern Ireland; SCO - Scotland; TDAD - Trinidad & Tobago; WAL - Wales
Modified 8-WRC
Paul Bird - ENG/Ian Windress - ENG (Subaru Impreza WRC S9)
Paul Bourne/Stuart Maloney (Subaru Impreza WRC S9)
Brett Clarke/Garry Clarke (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI)
Barry Gale/Cherie Edghill (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI)
Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (Toyota Corolla WRC)
Trevor Manning/Derek Edwards (Ford Escort WRC)
Kris Meeke - NIR/Paul Nagle - NIR (Subaru Impreza WRC S9)
Jeffrey Panton - JAM/Mike Fennell Jnr - JAM (Ford Focus WRC02)
Steve Perez - ENG/Paul Spooner - WAL (Ford Focus WRC05)
Kevin Procter - ENG/Dave Bellerby - ENG (Subaru Impreza WRC S7)
Roger Skeete/Louis Venezia (Subaru Impreza WRC S12)
Modified 8-A
Neil Armstrong/Barry Ward (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI)
Ryan Champion - ENG/Craig Thorley - ENG (Subaru Impreza 555)
Graeme Finlayson - SCO/Martin Atwell (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo III RS)
Tom Roberts - ENG/Paul Rees - WAL (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI)
Kirk Watkins/Ryan Corbin (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V)
Production 4
George Anderson - SCO/John Millar - SCO (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII)
Ryan Hutchinson/Melissa Hutchinson (Toyota Celica GT4)
Harold Morley - ENG/Geoff Goddard (Subaru Impreza N14)
Geoff Noel/Kreigg Yearwood (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)
John Powell - TDAD/Michael March - JAM (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)
Dean Serrao/Ryan Farmer (Subaru Impreza N12)
Rob Swann - ENG/Darren Garrod - WAL (Subaru Impreza N14)
David Williams/Kris Yearwood (Subaru Impreza WRX STi)
Michael Worme/Brian Gibson (Subaru Impreza STi)
SuperModified 11
Calvin Briggs/Hulita Brathwaite (Ford Escort MkII)
Justin Campbell/Jermin Pope (BMW M3)
Phil Collins - WAL/Derek Brannigan - IRL (Ford Escort MkII)
Andrew Costin-Hurley - ENG/Shaun Mellett - ENG (Ford Puma)
Owen Cumberbatch/Kelly-Ann Sandiford (BMW M3)
Sammy Cumberbatch/Nicholas Yarde (BMW M3)
St Elmo Cumberbatch/Dwayne Forde (BMW E36)
Nick Gill/Sue Rogers (Mazda 3)
Raymond Gill/Jeremy Foster (BMW M3)
Rohan Hall/Pedro Thomas (Ford Sierra)
Mark Hamilton/Clive Howell (Ford Escort MkII)
Andrew Jones/Mark Thompson (Ford Escort MkII)
Graham Manning/tba (Ford Escort MkII)
Chris Moss - ENG/Stuart Ulyatt - ENG (Aston Martin Rally GT)
Jonathan Still/Heath Hazell (BMW M3)
Martin Stockdale - ENG/Mark Swallow - ENG (BMW M3 Compact)
SuperModified 10
Eric Allamby/Zach Heaselgrave (Mitsubishi Lancer)
Greg Cozier/Antonio Da Silva (Lotus Elise)
Paul Inniss/Kerry Downes (Toyota Starlet)
Duane Johnson/Victor Leslie (Mitsubishi Lancer)
Wayne King/Summer Lewis (Peugeot 306)
Simon Michael - NIR/Jonathan Foster (Ford Escort MkII)
Cliff Roett/Orry Hunte (Toyota Starlet)
Frans Verbaas - NED/Hester van Ovost - NED (Austin Mini Cooper)
Ian Warren/Robert Warren (Suzuki Swift)
Rhett Watson/Logan Watson (Ford Escort MkI)
Ralph White/Joe Troulan (Toyota Starlet)
SuperModified 9
James Betts/Josh Delmas (Opel Corsa)
Daryl Clarke/Russell Brancker (Mitsubishi Mirage)
Neil Corbin/Aaron Kirton (Toyota Starlet)
Jeremy Croney/James Goddard (Suzuki Snipe)
Vishal Dhanraj - TDAD/Richard Ramsingh - TDAD (Toyota Starlet)
George Gabriel/Leslie Evanson (Toyota Starlet)
Jeremy Gonsalves/Natasha Farnum (Suzuki Swift GTi)
Allan Maynard/tba (Toyota Starlet)
Tarik Minott - JAM/Peter Clarke - JAM (Suzuki Ignis JWRC)
Josh Read/Mark Jordan (Toyota Starlet)
Winston Thompson/tba (Toyota Starlet)
Karl Waterman/Matthew Staffner (Toyota Starlet)
Stuart White/Jason O'Neil (Toyota Starlet)
Ryan Wood/Raymond Parris (Toyota Starlet)
Historic
Ding Boston - ENG/John Puliston - ENG (Riley 1.5)
Modified 7
David Brewster/Rashid Phillips (Peugeot 205GTi)
Kyle Catwell/Justin Harrison (Volkswagen Golf GTI)
Norman Catwell/Stuart Leach - ENG (Peugeot 205 GTi)
John Corbin/Owen Proverbs (Toyota Corolla)
Freddie Gale/Kyle Proverbs (Toyota Corolla RunX)
Ron Greaves/Dwain Carter (Honda Civic)
Ron Layne/Giselle Layne (Nissan Sunny)
Adrian Linton/Jonathan Linton (Vauxhall Astra GSi)
Bobby Marshall - JAM/Dario Hoyte (Mitsubishi Mirage)
Gary Mendes/tba (Toyota Corolla)
Andrew Skeete/Bradley Weekes (Mitsubishi Lancer)
Cheryl Spencer - ENG/Barry Spencer - ENG (Vauxhall Astra GSi)
Modified 6
Wayne Archer/Angelique Bjerkhamn (Daihatsu Charmant)
Jamal Brathwaite/Talia Mapp (Mitsubishi Mirage)
Edward Corbin/Rodney Clarke (Daihatsu Charmant)
Carlos Edwards/tba (Toyota Starlet)
Nigel Reece/Jonathan Reece (Datsun 120Y)
Shareef Walcott/Juan Watts (Toyota Corolla)
Danny Williams/Reuben Nelson (Ford Fiesta)
Modified 5
Glenn Campbell - IRL/Ray Fitzpatrick - IRL (Nissan Micra)
Sean Cox/Adam Cox (Suzuki Swift)
Kenny Hall - SCO/Fenny Wesselink - NED (Opel Corsa)
Dave Sealy/tba (Toyota Starlet)
Production 3
Sean T Field/tba (Peugeot 306)
Production 2
Fabien Clarke/Pierre Lashley (Suzuki Ignis Sport)
Media enquiries: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com
web site - www.rallybarbados.bb
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