FORMER WINNER MANNING FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS

Local crowd favourite Trevor Manning is among the latest batch of on-line entries for Sol Rally Barbados 2010 (May 29/30), which marks the 20th Anniversary of the inaugural running of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) International All-Stage Rally; his entry brings to three the number of previous winners now entered, joining fellow-countryman Roger Skeete and Jamaica’s Gary Gregg.
Meanwhile, with the capacity entry of 90 nearly half-full - a spectacular 50 per cent increase on the status of the event by the same date last year - and nearly three months to go before the closing date on April 30, Rally Chairman Barry Gale is advising anyone who wishes to enter to go on-line “very, very soon!”
Local crowd favourite Manning won the BRC’s blue riband event in 1999, co-driven in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo V by Mike Ward; it was his first season in the car, following a joint third place (with Jamaica’s Doug Gore) the previous year in an Evo III and a class win in 1996 in the Lancer Turbo formerly campaigned by his father. In the subsequent two years, he finished second – in 2001, just 16/100ths of a second behind Skeete – then lost an almost certain win in 2002 to a mechanical failure.
One of only four drivers to have contested all 20 events so far – along with Paul Bourne, Roger Hill and Skeete - Manning has claimed 11 top 10 finishes, six on the podium, and was leading RB07 after three stages (consistently second quickest), before retiring with turbo failure. He is entered for Sol Rally Barbados 2010 in the ex-Roger Skeete Ford Escort WRC, which he acquired early last year.
Manning is a third-generation competitor, following grandfather Harold, who won the first organised motor sport event in the island in 1934, and father Roger, who was a force to reckon with in the 1980s, when his co-driver was David Edwards, father to Manning Junior’s current co-driver Derek; his elder brother Wayne and cousin Graham are also part of the island’s motor sport fraternity.

Entry half-full three months before closing date

With nearly three months to go before the closing date on April 30, on-line entries for Sol Rally Barbados 2010 are approaching 50, more than half-way to the event’s maximum entry of 90 starters . . . and a spectacular 50 per cent increase on the status of the event by the same date last year.
Of the 48 entries so far received, exactly one-third are from overseas, the 16 entered including four newcomers to the event. Last year, just 32 entries had been received by February 3, eight of them from overseas, all of whom were return visitors.
Rally Chairman Barry Gale says: “While I think I should avoid sounding like the record’s stuck, I’m totally overwhelmed by the support our event is continuing to enjoy - and particularly from overseas - in what are financially very troubled times world-wide. Obviously, the Barbados Rally Club, its marketing partners and its hundreds of volunteer marshals and officials are getting something right!
“But this is also a good time to issue a word of warning . . . in this part of the world, we often don’t get round to doing things in a very timely manner. The number of places left for Sol Rally Barbados 2010 is almost exactly the same as the number of local crews who competed last year, but have yet to enter for this year’s event. I recommend that anyone who wishes to enter, either from Barbados or overseas, goes on-line to www.rallybarbados.bb to do so very, very soon!”

Sol Rally Barbados (May 29/30) and Shell V-Power King of the Hill (May 23) are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB2010 marks the 20th Anniversary of the inaugural running of the Club’s International All-Stage Rally.

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