News

The Geest Line freighter Benguela Stream set sail from Portsmouth on the English south coast late on Tuesday (April 26) after two nights in port exchanging fruit and other produce from around the Caribbean for a record shipment of 32 rally cars bound for the region’s biggest annual motor sport International, Sol Rally Barbados . . . and local fans will be happy to know that 13 of those cars are Ford Escort MkIIs.

Former UK National Rally Champion Roger Duckworth will make his fourth trip to Sol Rally Barbados this year, joining a growing list of returnees spread right through the field in the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international. While he will be fighting at the sharp end, another four regular visitors are confirmed today in the Clubman, Group B and Historic classes.

With changeable weather conditions making life tough for the 40-strong field, Neil Armstrong (Monster/Sol/Chefette/Digicel/Virgin Atlantic/Gunk/Hankook Tyres/Redline Fuels/Simpson Finance/Simpson Motors Suzuki SX4 WRC) triumphed in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Summer Nights Tarmac Sprint on Saturday evening (August 17).   The Hangman’s Hill to Lion Castle stage offered drivers a different challenge on each of the four runs – dry for practice, wet for the first official run, damp for the second, almost completely dry for the final.

Giant-killer Neil Armstrong, the highest-placed two-wheel-drive finisher in Sol Rally Barbados for the past two years, faces a new challenge in the 2013 running of the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International on June 1/2. It was confirmed this week that he will drive the Simpson Motors/MML Suzuki SX4 WRC in 2013.