IRISH BOOST 4WD ENTRY FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS

Two Irish drivers who made their Caribbean debuts last year are among the six entries from the ‘Emerald Isle’ now confirmed for Sol Rally Barbados 2013 (June 1/2). Their addition to the on-line entry list on the official web site, www.rallybarbados.net, boosts the four-wheel-drive entry to 18, more than half that number in the WRC classes.   Although both rally cars will be shipped from Ireland, the drivers approach Barbados from different directions: County Antrim farmer Joe McQuillan will travel west from Northern Ireland to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international, while businessman Martin Donnelly will journey east from his base in New York.   Donnelly, who started his competition career in the mid-1990s driving a Ford Mustang, has been a regular competitor on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, and twice won the Atlantic Rally Cup in the United States. Champion in 2008 & ’09, he has been a regular podium finisher on events in Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee and won the Black River Stages in up-state New York three years in a row.   In Sol RB12, with co-driver Colin Fitzgerald in the Eire Concrete Inc Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, Donnelly finished an impressive 22nd overall all and second in Group N, the island’s Production 4 category. For Sol RB13, Fitzgerald is unavailable, so his co-driver will be fellow-Irishman Brian Docherty.   McQuillan, who has been rallying since the late 1990s and has won the Mid Antrim Motor Club Championship twice, returns with the Evo VII prepared by Paul McGrath Motorsport and Raymond Mason, in which he finished 40th overall and third in Modified 8-A last year. For Sol RB13, the car boasts a new livery, and a new co-driver, McQuillan’s partner Annette Daly.   Since Sol RB12, the M & M McNally/Masstock/Masserene Park Farms-backed Evo, which started life as a Group N car, has been on a diet, alongside a development programme, as McQuillan, aka ‘The Big Man’, explains: “Since Barbados, we have taken the car to three rally events, finished second overall in the first, but found the handling was not satisfactory, despite the result.   “We continued reducing and transferring weight for the next event, but the car was undriveable to the point of being dangerous – we still finished second overall, though! At the third event, with a new navigator and new suspension setups, it was performing very well, and it looked like we would win, until we had gearbox failure and a DNF!” ‘Spring Blaze’ in Barbados and Rally Trinidad this weekend Some of the Caribbean’s likely front-runners for Sol Rally Barbados 2013 are in action for the first time this season in events this weekend. ‘Spring Blaze’, a tarmac sprint organised by the Motoring Club of Barbados Inc (MCBI), includes some of the island’s top names, while Rally Trinidad 2013 has a regional mix of contenders.   Sunday’s (March 24) MCBI double-header, also the opening rounds of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Virgin Atlantic Championship, gives island fans starved of action since October a taste of things to come.   The provisional list includes Roger Skeete (Sol/Michelin/Simpson Motors/Da Costa Mannings Auto Centre Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 12-time winner of the BRC’s premier event, 2003 and ’07 winner Paul Bourne (Chefette/Banks/LIME/MQI/Castrol Ford Focus WRC07) and Roger Hill in his Esso/Nassco/MotorMac Toyota Corolla WRC.   Reigning BRC 2wd Champion Logan Watson (Ritz/Club Social/Armstrong Agencies/Power King Batteries/Unknown Entity/Hankook Tyres/SpringBoard Marketing Platforms/In Support of Little Pink Gift BMW M3) heads that section of the entry, with brother Rhett (Oreo/Chips Ahoy!/Armstrong Agencies/Power King Batteries/Unknown Entity/Hankook Tyres/SpringBoard Marketing Platforms/In Support of Little Pink Gift  BMW M3), Ian Warren (Simpson Motors/Automotive Art Suzuki Swift), Josh Read (Stihl/Gliptone/Hankook/SDRR/Weetabix/Royal Purple/EZone Toyota Starlet) and Brett Clarke (Western Union Citroen C2).   Two hundred miles south, Rally Trinidad (March 22-24) is the first of the Caribbean’s ‘Big Three’ for 2013, a high-speed loose-surface event, the 30-car entry headed by last year’s winner, Trinidad’s John Powell (Shell Helix Impreza S14). He faces off against 2011 winner, Jamaica’s Jeff Panton, who finished second last year when he debuted his Focus WRC06, and Neil Armstrong of Barbados, making his WRC debut in the Monster/Sol/Chefette/Digicel/Virgin Atlantic/Gunk/Hankook Tyres/Redline Fuels/Simpson Finance/Simpson Motors Suzuki SX4 WRC. Sol Rally Barbados (June 1/2) and Scotiabank King of the Hill (May 26) 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