Rally

Three-time British and National Rally Champion Steve Perez got back behind the wheel of his ex-Marcus Gronholm Kick Energy Drink Ford Focus WRC07 last weekend for the first time in many months to kick-start the preparations for his eighth attack on Sol Rally Barbados (June 1/2), the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international.   With regular co-driver Paul Spooner, Perez finished fourth and WR1 class-winner in Saturday’s (March 2) Malcolm Wilson Rally, second round of the REIS Get Connected BTRDA Rally Championship, which he won in 2010.

Confirmation this week that Jamaica’s Jeffrey Panton has entered Sol Rally Barbados 2013 (June 1/2) in his ex-Marcus Gronholm Ford Focus WRC06 brings to four the entries confirmed for the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) new WRC-1 class in the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international.   Driving a Toyota Celica GT4 in 1998, Panton was the event’s first winner from the wider Caribbean, following local ace Roger Skeete and Ireland’s Kenny McKinstry, who had shared the earlier victories six-two.

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.

As entries for Sol Rally Barbados 2013 (June 1/2) edged towards the starting list cap of 100 this week – the total hit 98 today (Friday) - father and son Eddie and Keith Power bring to four the number of first-time Irish crews entered for the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International. Entries remain open on the official web site, www.rallybarbados.net, for another three months.