THE BARBADIAN pair of Neil Armstrong and Max Ferri will carry the national colours in an international rally in Britain later this month.
Armstrong, a Barbados Rally Club (BRC) four-time group champion and Ferri, the winning co-driver of Rally Barbados 2005, will take on the opposition in the opening round of the Dulux Trade MSA British Rally Championship – the Rally Sunseeker International on February 25 and 26.
Backed by the Sol Group and the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC), Armstrong and Ferri will drive the North Yorkshire-based MSR Motorsport-prepared Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX.
The car will be liveried to promote the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international event –Sol Rally Barbados 2011 which will be contested on June 4 and 5.
It will be their second appearance in the British rally. Two years ago, Armstrong, 29, and co-driver Ferri finished 17th overall and ninth in Group N on their first outing
outside the Caribbean.
This year’s British event, now elevated to the British Rally Championship will present Armstrong and Ferri with a new challenge and Armstrong said he was ready for the occasion.
“I can’t wait to have another crack at Sunseeker! Max and I had such a fantastic time in 2009 that, when the opportunity came up to do it again, I jumped at it without thinking twice. We should be better prepared this time, with a shakedown session planned for the Thursday, then the race on Friday. Hopefully, I will be a bit more comfortable than I was in 2009 and can start at a decent pace,” Armstrong told WEEKEND SPORT.
MSR Motorsport’s Mark Robson said they were pleased to be running Armstrong for the second time.
“Although it will be a British Rally Championship event this year, I think the experience he gained last time around, along with the race, will all go towards what we hope will be a good result for him and the team,” Robson said.
BRC chairman Geoff Noel will represent the Rally Club in Britain along with vice-chairman, Mark Hamilton, who said he was really excited about it.
“The club’s marketing team has been working hard for some months to pull the different elements of this together; thanks to support from our title sponsor, the Sol Group, the BTA in London, the TDC in Barbados and Neil Armstrong himself, we’ll be pulling off the biggest single promotion for a Caribbean motor sport event ever staged outside the region,” he said.
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.
