ANGLIA BOOSTS WRC ENTRY FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS

Following a steady rise in the number of World Rally Cars contesting the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) blue riband event, the on-line entries for Sol Rally Barbados (May 29/30) suggest the total will reach record levels again for the 2010 event, which celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the inaugural running of the Club’s International All-Stage Rally.
And, alongside the usual suspects - Ford Focus WRC, Subaru Impreza WRC and Toyota Corolla WRC for instance - there’s a Ford Anglia WRC. In this instance, however, the initials WRC stand for Well-Run Car; the car’s owner, Scottish scrap dealer Allan Mackay, and Northern Irish co-driver ‘MadMo’ Downey are among seven first-time overseas entries so far received.
This is no ordinary Anglia - dating from 1959, it is the same age as its owner. Fifty-year-old Mackay explains: “I have owned this car since I was 14, and I have another 14 Anglias, along with a Group A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI.”
Built by Mackay Motorsport and now prepared by Northern Ireland company Mark Greer Motorsport, the Anglia is powered by a 1.6-litre eight-valve all-steel engine, developing 185bhp; the upgrades include throttle bodies, six-speed sequential gearbox, fully-floating axle, all-round Proflex suspension and power steering.
Having started in motor sport in 1977, using the Anglia for both circuit racing and rallying, Mackay went on to win the 1989 Scottish Tarmac Championship; more recently, he and co-driver Downey have won their class in the Northern Ireland Rally Championship in 2006 & ’07, although a major accident on the 2006 Easter Stages, when they rolled the Evo VI, is an event they will not soon forget.
Downey says: “I first sat with Allan on the Mourne Stages, a Northern Ireland Championship round, in 2005. I had only met him the day before, but we’ve been great friends ever since. For the last couple of years, we have done Double Zero car on the Snowman Rally in two feet of snow, so we’re looking forward to the sunshine.”

Bird and Perez miss out again on UK Championship opener

Rally Barbados regulars Steve Perez and Paul Bird, both former UK National Rally Champions - Perez in 2004, ‘Birdy’ in ’05 - once again missed out on victory in Rallye Sunseeker, opening round of the MSA Gravel Rally Championship, run in and around Bournemouth and Poole on England’s south coast at the weekend (February 26/27).
Fastest on the opening stage, Perez and co-driver Paul Spooner went on to finish third in the Kick Energy Ford Focus WRC07, after a second-place finish looked certain until a spin on the final stage: "I threw it all away on the last stage! We had a minor spin but I accidentally caught the master switch and, by the time we'd realised what had happened, we'd lost a lot of time. It was our only problem all day long. The car has been great as always, and we had a relatively comfortable second place until that happened."
Four-time National Champion and local driver Marcus Dodd extended his record sequence of victories on the event to seven in his Hyundai Accent WRC, while Andy Burton took advantage of the VK Energy driver’s spin on the final stage to snatch second place in his popular Peugeot-Cosworth.
While Perez spun on the final stage of the day, the problems started much earlier for Bird, who had attended his mother Isabel’s funeral only days before the event; with Scottish co-driver Kirsty Riddick – she was suffering suspected glandular fever - he spun the Rockstar Energy/www.supercasino.com/Vent-Axia Ford Focus WRC08 on the day’s first stage, the time lost compounded two stages later with a further minute’s delay after going off the road. The Kawasaki World Superbike team boss managed to claw back some time, but had to settle for fifth place overall.
Bird said: "It's been a tough week, and I wondered if I should do the event . . . but I'm glad I did. I couldn't concentrate properly, but that's not an excuse. I just made too many mistakes early on and, from that point, we were playing catch up. Kirsty's not been too well today and that's not helped our cause.”
The friends and rivals will face off once again on next weekend's Malcolm Wilson Rally, where Bird is chasing an historic fourth win on his home event.

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