SOL RALLY BARBADOS PULLS IN TWO-WHEEL-DRIVES

  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.   There will be trophies for the Top 10 two-wheel-drive cars, while the highest-placed overseas crews in front- and rear-wheel-drive cars will also have their entry fees reimbursed. Sol RB2011 Chairman Barry Gale says: “We decided to do something to more actively encourage the cars that go out of their way to excite spectators . . . and I have to say we’re delighted with the response that we have been getting.”   The latest entries are the Mark I of regular British Historic Rally Championship (BHRC) crew, Craig Salter and Preston Ayres, and a Mark II for Robert Cholmondeley and Dave Evans, ANCRO National Championship competitors in recent years.   Salter’s car, which started life as an Escort 1300L, was rebuilt into a rally car in 2004, to participate in the first-ever running of the Roger Albert Clark Rally, which has become an iconic event on the UK calendar. Initially prepared to full BHRC regulations, it has been modified since, the Bentley Vehicle Supplies/Terry Dolphin Engine/Burton Engineering-backed car now producing around 260 horsepower.   An accomplished mechanic, as well as driver, Essex-based Salter started competing at local events including sprints and autocrosses around 30 years ago in an Escort; since building his current car, he has enjoyed class and championship wins not only locally, but also in the BHRC, the Belgian Historic Championship, and on the Roger Albert Clark.   Ayres is among the most experienced – and, therefore, busiest – co-drivers in the UK; his list of credits include BHRC Champion Co-driver in 2002, when he sat with Charles Golding - they clocked up five outright wins from the nine events in a Ford Escort RS1600, on which Salter was the mechanic. His ‘marathon’ results include third overall in the 2007 East African Safari Classic co-driving for Geoff Fielding in his Porsche 911. Ayres, who lives in Milton Keynes, says: “After 4500kms of tough African ‘roads’ in nine days, we failed to beat Bjorn Waldegard, but we did manage to beat Stig Blomqvist.” Two years earlier, he had finished sixth overall with Iain Freestone in a Ford Escort Mk1.   Cholmondeley has owned his Mark II since the end of 2005, when it replaced an eight-valve Pinto-engined example; this car has a 220 horsepower 16-valve Cosworth unit, which was completely overhauled over the winter of 2007-08, when the car was re-shelled following a big accident on the Bulldog Rally.  Having started competing in a Lada in 1990, Cholmondeley has won some local titles in the British Midlands, and has one International claim to fame: his drive on the 1993 Network Q RAC Rally (Britain’s round of the World Rally Championship) in a rear-wheel-drive Opel Manta - 82nd of the 94 finishers, in the snow! - marked the last appearance of a Manta on an international rally.   Regional crews meet in Rally Trinidad this weekend   The first of the Caribbean region’s ‘Big Three’ annual events - Rally Trinidad - runs off this weekend (April 1-3). Between the Opening Ceremony and short super special stage at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Friday evening and the street special Mayor’s Cup in Saith Park, Chaguanas, on Sunday afternoon, the organising Trinidad & Tobago Rally Club promise an action-packed weekend of loose-surface rallying.   The overseas entry is a little down on last year, but the event will nevertheless offer some pointers in advance of Sol Rally Barbados in two months’ time. Defending RT titlist, Trinidad-based Jamaican John Powell, has confirmed that his Subaru Impreza WRC S12 will not return in time from a rebuild following a damaging front-end impact in Rally Jamaica last December, so will compete in a Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X instead.   That will deprive fans of a showdown between him and the drivers who finished first and second in RJ10, Jamaica’s Gary Gregg (Ford Focus WRC05) and Sean Gill of Barbados (Suzuki SX4 WRC), who claimed victory in the Jamaica SuperSpecial in an impressive regional debut. Jamaica’s Jeff Panton (Focus WRC00) is also on the list for Trinidad, although he has already said that he does not intend to contest Sol RB2011.   Sol Rally Barbados (June 4/5, 2011) and Shell V-Power King of the Hill (May 29) are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB2011 is the 22nd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the start of a second three-year term of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.   For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web site: www.rallybarbados.bb