FORTY PLUS FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS RETURNEES

Five repeat visitors who have clocked up more than 40 trips to Barbados over the last 10 years were among the first International competitors to post on-line entries for Sol Rally Barbados 2013 (June 1/2). Since registration opened last month on the official web site, www.rallybarbados.net, nearly three-quarters of the more than 40 entries already received have come from the wider Caribbean and Europe.   Four-time Scottish National class champion Kenny Hall, a visitor since 2002, was among the first to enter, despite not knowing what he will drive for his 11th onslaught on the island’s premier event. His co-driver will be Holland’s Fenny Wesselink – it’s her eighth visit to Barbados – but the final decision on the car is some weeks away.   Having made alternative entries for either the Opel Corsa in which he was first seen in Barbados or the ex-works Ford Puma S1600 which he has campaigned for the past three years, Hall notes: “We’re in the middle of a major rebuild of the Puma. We have the sand-blasting and hole-cutting done as of today, but I need to inspire the guys to get the work done . . . and that is what I’m focussed on right now.”   Hall has three times won Modified 5, in the Corsa, in 2004 with Colin Clark as co-driver, then twice with Wesselink: in 2007, 22nd overall also gave them the trophy as the highest-placed crew including a female, and they won M5 again in Sol RB09.   The Puma has been less successful: in Sol RB10, ‘Kenny & Fenny’ were just a few hundred yards away from another class win, until a wrong slot on the first run of the Shell V-Power SuperSpecial at Simpson Motors dropped them to second in M6. For the past two years, the Puma has retired, so Hall definitely has unfinished business.   Also in a Puma is Andrew Costin-Hurley, on his 10th visit to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international, with co-driver Rob Brook back for his eighth. Driving his self-built rear-wheel-drive Puma, former Indy car and F1 engineer Costin-Hurley won Group B in Rally Barbados in 2007 and ’08. Brook sits in the Puma for the second time – he was co-driver in 2011 – having previously competed in Barbados as co-driver (four times, in four different cars) and driver (once), and also acted as International Steward.   Another competitor to have fulfilled official roles in recent years is Welshman Paul ‘Tourist Man’ Rees, whose Vauxhall Astra is entered in the Historic class; a co-driver is yet to be named. This will be his fourth outing as a competitor since 2003, when he finished fourth in M5 in a Vauxhall Corsa. A brief trip as co-driver to Tom Roberts in 2009 ended just a few corners into the first stage, then Rees returned with his recently-completed Astra in 2011, when he finished 34th overall and third in M5.   Between his visits as a competitor, Rees, a respected rally official in the UK and Marshal Liaison for Wales Rally GB, worked with the local organisers, during which trips he met and married island motor sport stalwart Biddy Barber’s daughter Ali; the couple now live in England. Mixed fortunes for Barbados regulars Bird and Perez in the UK As the 2012 UK season draws to a close, there have been mixed fortunes for regular Sol RB visitors in recent weeks. Sol RB12 winners Paul Bird and Kirsty Riddick looked set for victory in last Saturday’s (December 1) Coppermines Grizedale Stages Rally in ‘Birdy’s native Lake District, only for disaster to strike within four miles of the finish.   Despite a severe overnight frost and temperatures rarely above freezing, Bird (Fuchs Titan/Rapid Solicitors/Kick Energy/Frank Bird Poultry Ford Focus WRC08) was second behind Alex Allingham's Subaru on the first nine-mile stage, cut the gap to nine seconds after SS2, then led by 14secs, with one stage to go.   On the final 16.4-mile stage, he looked set to add a second win on his local event to that of 2009, but he slid wide, clipped a ditch and spun into a tree, breaking the steering and causing instant retirement. Bird said: “I'd not put a foot wrong all day, despite it being the slippiest it's ever been here, but my Grizedale jinx has struck again!"   By contrast, Barbados regular Steve Perez won his class in the Killarney Historic Rally in Southern Ireland on the same day, some compensation for retiring just two stages from home in the previous weekend’s iconic Roger Albert Clark Rally, when a flailing punctured tyre broke a suspension upright. Co-driven in his Amigos Tequila-flavoured beer-branded Lancia Stratos by Carl Williamson – another to have rallied in Barbados, as co-driver to Andrew Siddall - Perez finished 14th overall and fifth historic car home. Sol Rally Barbados and Scotiabank King of the Hill are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB13 is the 24th running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the sixth year of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company. For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web sites: www.rallybarbados.net; www.barbadosrallyclub.com