SOL RALLY BARBADOS BACKS RALLYE SUNSEEKER

The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) has joined forces with the London office of the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) to stage a major promotion for Sol Rally Barbados 2011 at Rallye Sunseeker International next month (February 25/26); based in the British south coast resorts of Bournemouth and Poole, it is for the first time the opening round of the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship.

Rallye Sunseeker has for 25 years been round one of the ANCRO National Rally Championship – the series won by Barbados regulars Steve Perez and Paul Bird in 2004 and ’05 respectively – and is the only major rally in the south of England; the gravel event offers around 60 miles through 11 stages, varying from 2.58 to 10.55 miles, and includes National, Historique (which covers only seven stages) and Military events.

The winning crew in Rallye Sunseeker National will receive free entry and shipping to Sol RB2011 from the BTA, plus flights, accommodation and rental car from the BRC, an award valued at around US $8,500 (£5,500); the National event is also the opening round of the UK’s new SuperCar Rally Challenge, which caters for those four-wheel-drive cars outside British Rally Championship regulations, including World Rally Cars.

Petra Roach, BTA vice-president, marketing & sales Europe, said: “Sol Rally Barbados is a key element of our island’s sports-tourism product; after a limited promotion at Rallye Sunseeker 2010, we saw the potential for a bigger programme this year. There is a lot of synergy between the two events – both bring vital tourist income to their host venues at traditionally ‘slower’ times of year, winter in the UK and summer in Barbados, both are organised by extremely professional teams, and both attract huge crowds.”

Rallye Sunseeker event director Rick Smith added: “We’re delighted to be associated with Sol Rally Barbados; many of our regular competitors, like ‘Birdy’ and Steve Perez, are well known in the island, and I hope we can build on this relationship in the future.”

In addition to the winner’s prize, the promotion includes a major BTA presence at the Friday night Ceremonial Start on Poole Quay and Saturday’s Somerley Speed Festival, staged alongside the keynote spectator stage at Somerley Park, home of event patron Viscount Somerton. Sol Rally Barbados chairman Barry Gale says: “With footfall through the official car parks and various venues at Rallye Sunseeker of around 35,000 people, this is an ideal way to enhance our existing promotion of this year’s event.”

Champion loses Christmas Stages victory to broken spark plug

Ryan Champion, winner of Group N in Sol RB2008, finished second in last week’s Specsavers Christmas Stages (December 28), one of the UK’s last rallies of the year; partnered by Jemma Bellingham, to whom he became engaged on Christmas Day, he finished the seven-stage event at the Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire 23 seconds behind Dale Robertson and Paul Mcguire (Mitubishi Lancer Evo IX).

Champion had been leading after three stages, but his Group A Subaru Impreza 555 dropped on to three cylinders. He said: “It seems a plug broke. It was all going well before then, although there lots of ’traffic’ and we were held up on most stages! On SS4, the car dropped on to three cylinders and was running badly. Then I stalled it on a hairpin and it wouldn't restart; it did eventually but we dropped 30 seconds or so. We changed the plugs at service and it was fine again, until I had an over-shoot on the last stage trying a bit hard to make up time, in the dark when it was foggy and on ice!”

Barbados regulars Kevin Procter and Dave Bellerby had been hoping for a hat-trick victory in their Subaru Impreza WRC, but the icy conditions made it difficult for him to get the power down, finishing stage one in 10th place; conditions did improve somewhat during the day and Procter clawed his way up to fourth at the finish, 14 seconds behind the third-placed Nissan Pulsar GTiR of Tony Bardy and Andrew Constantine.

As the top three overall do not also collect class awards, Procter and Bellerby claimed the Class 5 win, while Nick Cook and David Scrimgour won Class 3 by finishing ninth overall in the Ford Escort MkI, which Cook has twice taken to the Caribbean.

Sol Rally Barbados (June 4/5, 2011) and Shell V-Power King of the Hill (May 29) are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB2011 is the 22nd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the start of a second three-year term of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company.

For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com

web site: www.rallybarbados.bb