Rally

The Oxford Universities Motorsport Foundation is returning to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport International for the fourth time in five years . . . and that is roughly the time it has taken the student body to rebuild from a bare shell its ‘new’ race and rally car, a 1966 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTV.   Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) represents a return to international rallying for the first time in a decade for the Italian sports saloon, which was spotted in 2006 as an abandoned shell, awaiting the scrap man.

  British rally engineer John Hardman will compete in Sol Rally Barbados (June 9/10) for the fifth time in 2012, as part of a three-car contingent from Wales, which brings to 25 the number of International crews now confirmed on the on-line entry list at www.rallybarbados.bb.

  As competitors in the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Virgin Atlantic Driver’s and Class Championships prepare for the upcoming Valvoline Shakedown Stages – round three of 10 in this year’s series, to be run on Sunday, May 6 – Daryl Clarke and Neil Corbin are the early pace-setters in the Driver’s title chase, with Sean Gill and Ian Warren leading the four-wheel-drive and two-wheel-drive standings respectively.

  As Irish entries for Sol Rally Barbados 2012 (June 9/10) approach record numbers, the latest crews confirmed reveal an attack on the event from both sides of the Atlantic. As County Antrim’s Joe McQuillan confirms his entry in Group A, the country’s four-wheel-drive contingent is boosted in Group N by New York-based Martin Donnelly, both newcomers to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international.