ANGLIA
BOOSTS WRC ENTRY FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS 1 March, 2010
|
Following a steady rise in
the number of World Rally Cars contesting
the Barbados Rally Clubs (BRC) blue
riband event, the on-line entries for Sol
Rally Barbados (May 29/30) suggest the
total will reach record levels again for
the 2010 event, which celebrates the 20th
Anniversary of the inaugural running of
the Clubs International All-Stage
Rally. And, alongside the usual
suspects - Ford Focus WRC, Subaru Impreza
WRC and Toyota Corolla WRC for instance -
theres a Ford Anglia WRC. In this
instance, however, the initials WRC stand
for Well-Run Car; the cars owner,
Scottish scrap dealer Allan Mackay, and
Northern Irish co-driver
MadMo Downey are among seven
first-time overseas entries so far
received.
|
This
is no ordinary Anglia - dating from 1959, it is
the same age as its owner. Fifty-year-old Mackay
explains: I have owned this car since I was
14, and I have another 14 Anglias, along with a
Group A Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI.
Built by Mackay
Motorsport and now prepared by Northern Ireland
company Mark Greer Motorsport, the Anglia is
powered by a 1.6-litre eight-valve all-steel
engine, developing 185bhp; the upgrades include
throttle bodies, six-speed sequential gearbox,
fully-floating axle, all-round Proflex suspension
and power steering.
Having started in
motor sport in 1977, using the Anglia for both
circuit racing and rallying, Mackay went on to
win the 1989 Scottish Tarmac Championship; more
recently, he and co-driver Downey have won their
class in the Northern Ireland Rally Championship
in 2006 & 07, although a major accident
on the 2006 Easter Stages, when they rolled the
Evo VI, is an event they will not soon forget.
Downey says: I first sat with Allan
on the Mourne Stages, a Northern Ireland
Championship round, in 2005. I had only met him
the day before, but weve been great friends
ever since. For the last couple of years, we have
done Double Zero car on the Snowman Rally in two
feet of snow, so were looking forward to
the sunshine.
Bird and Perez miss out again on UK
Championship opener
Rally Barbados regulars Steve Perez and Paul
Bird, both former UK National Rally Champions -
Perez in 2004, Birdy in 05 -
once again missed out on victory in Rallye
Sunseeker, opening round of the MSA Gravel Rally
Championship, run in and around Bournemouth and
Poole on Englands south coast at the
weekend (February 26/27).
Fastest on the
opening stage, Perez and co-driver Paul Spooner
went on to finish third in the Kick Energy Ford
Focus WRC07, after a second-place finish looked
certain until a spin on the final stage: "I
threw it all away on the last stage! We had a
minor spin but I accidentally caught the master
switch and, by the time we'd realised what had
happened, we'd lost a lot of time. It was our
only problem all day long. The car has been great
as always, and we had a relatively comfortable
second place until that happened."
Four-time National
Champion and local driver Marcus Dodd extended
his record sequence of victories on the event to
seven in his Hyundai Accent WRC, while Andy
Burton took advantage of the VK Energy
drivers spin on the final stage to snatch
second place in his popular Peugeot-Cosworth.
While Perez spun
on the final stage of the day, the problems
started much earlier for Bird, who had attended
his mother Isabels funeral only days before
the event; with Scottish co-driver Kirsty Riddick
she was suffering suspected glandular
fever - he spun the Rockstar
Energy/www.supercasino.com/Vent-Axia Ford Focus
WRC08 on the days first stage, the time
lost compounded two stages later with a further
minutes delay after going off the road. The
Kawasaki World Superbike team boss managed to
claw back some time, but had to settle for fifth
place overall.
Bird said:
"It's been a tough week, and I wondered if I
should do the event . . . but I'm glad I did. I
couldn't concentrate properly, but that's not an
excuse. I just made too many mistakes early on
and, from that point, we were playing catch up.
Kirsty's not been too well today and that's not
helped our cause.
The friends and
rivals will face off once again on next weekend's
Malcolm Wilson Rally, where Bird is chasing an
historic fourth win on his home event.
Sol Rally Barbados (May 29/30) and Shell V-Power
King of the Hill (May 23) are organised by the
Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th
Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB2010 marks the 20th
Anniversary of the inaugural running of the
Clubs International All-Stage Rally.
|