LONG-DISTANCE RECORD FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS

Retired Australian businessman Paul Darrouzet will set a new long-distance record for Sol Rally Barbados when he travels to compete in the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international . . . a round trip of more than 36,000kms, from Brisbane to Los Angeles, LA to Miami, then Miami to Grantley Adams International and back.

The entry for Darrouzet and English co-driver Jim Hurman posted on the official web site (www.rallybarbados.bb) brings to 18 the countries outside the Caribbean to be represented in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event in recent years . . . while their car is a first for the event, too, a 400 horsepower Ford Capri Perana.

The Perana was a limited edition vehicle built under licence from the Ford Motor Company by Basil Green in South Africa between 1968 and ‘74; powered by fearsome Ford Windsor 4.9-litre V8s, Peranas claimed a string of national circuit racing championships in the hands of Green and other notable South African drivers of the period, including Basil van Rooyen and Bob Olthoff.

The example travelling to Barbados has a 400-horsepower engine, four-barrel Holley carburettors and Mustang gearbox; it was built up from a 1969 Ford Capri Mk 1 shell by Ben Rainsford, a long-serving Australian motor sport official and current Chairman of Rally Australia - the target was the London to Sydney Rally in 2000, which he duly won, sharing the car with 1984 World Rally Champion Stig Blomqvist.

Current owner Darrouzet, who has earned the nickname ‘Crash Test Dummy’, lives on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, in the popular resort of Noosa, which even has a street named Barbados Crescent. He has competed in a number of exotic events, including the London to Sydney Marathon in 2004, retiring after a major crash on the Tata Tea plantation stage in India. He went on to the 2006 Carrera Sudamericana, in which Hurman also competed, finishing fourth overall, co-driving an Opel Astra GTE for fellow Brit Nick Starkey, who now prepares the Perana with Martin Julia.

Darrouzet and Hurman teamed up for the 2007 East African Safari Rally. Their latest outing was October’s Rallye International du Maroc – they were fourth after the first day’s 110 kilometres of stages, behind the Porsche 911s of former World Championship works driver Gregoire de Mevius and Geoff Bell, and John Lloyd’s Ford Escort.

Disaster soon befell them, however, as Hurman recalls: “The stages were up to 120 kilometres and very rough in parts - we fell in to a hole about three feet deep and broke the axle! We managed to weld it up, but we had lost lots of time and had to take care of the car, as it was lame and not quite straight . . . and we had another five days and 900 kilometres to go!” They did make it to the finish, 11th overall and ninth in class.

Just three weeks before Sol RB2011, Darrouzet will be competing in his home event, the International Rally of Queensland, the second round of both the Australian Rally Championship and the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship; he will drive the sister Capri Perana, which is based in Australia.

Barbados crew racks up international experience

The number of competitors from the Caribbean to have rallied outside the region grew by one last weekend, when reigning Barbados Rally Club Modified 6 Champion Driver Jamal Brathwaite was co-driver for fellow Bajan Jonathan Linton in Rallye Erzgebirge (April 8/9), in the mountainous and picturesque south-east of Germany.

They were competing in the Opel Astra OPC in which Linton and brother Adrian have recorded three finishes in WRC events (Wales Rally GB twice, also Rally Finland) with technical and crew support from Team AutoScharf and sponsorship from Team KickAstra’s regular backers, Ravensden.

After a slow start – 38th of the 56 starters, 12th in class on stage one – they soon picked up pace; as their new partnership developed, and they were also tackling stages for a second or third time, they moved steadily up the order, finishing in the top 20 on the last two of the nine stages.

They finished 22nd overall and sixth of the 10 finishers in Division 5, where they faced machinery including BMWs, Renaults and Skodas. Linton said: “Thanks to Jamal for excellent pace notes and great driving tips that allowed me to be 50 seconds faster on the repeat of SS1, the penultimate stage of the day, SS8, when we were 19th fastest.”

They now turn their attentions to island motor sport and Sol Rally Barbados (June 4/5), in which they are both defending class winners: Brathwaite will again drive with sister Talia Mapp as co-driver in M6, while Linton will call the notes for Germany’s Berndt Knuepfer in his Team AutoScharf Opel Astra OPC Turbo in Production 4, having won M7 with brother Adrian last year.

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