by Trevor ThorpeTrevor “Electric Micey” Manning will miss Sol Rally Barbados this weekend.The flamboyant driver and winner of the event in 1999, said ongoing engine problems and lack of adequate sponsorship were at the root of his absence from competition this year.The sixth-place finisher in last year’s event with co-driver Derek Edwards in the All Terrain Plus-Cellate Caribbean- Garbage Master-Bess Block Ford Escort WRC, Manning was disappointed, but optimistic about the future. “It’s an abnormal situation, but we did not get the second half of the sponsorship to get things up and running how we would have liked, so we decided to sit it out and come again next year,” he told NATIONSPORT.Pointing out that it was a hard decision to make, Manning traced the events from the end of last year when he lost the bottom half of his engine, to the present, adding that efforts at getting things up and running fell short. “We had a few options open to us, like driving a turbo Mistubishi Lancer, but we decided to stay out of this one and come again next year. The competition is hot throughout the entry list,” he noted.According to Manning, his Ford Escort has old technology and the competition has gone up considerably and he would have wanted to be competitive among the group in which he would competed. “Maybe it will be a good rally to watch. I am looking forward to being a spectator, as I expect it to be a very keenly contested affair.” According to the 1999 winner, predicting a champion would not be easy this year as Roger Skeete, the ten times winner of the event, was looking good this season, but there was also Paul Bourne, who just won King Of The Hill, and Paul Bird, fresh from winning the Manx Rally about three weeks ago, and Gary Gregg, a previous winner of the event.Manning also said that Roger Hill could not be overlooked in the mix and with the uncertainties of rallying, this year’s event had all the ingredients of being the best ever.A total of 93 cars are entered for the rally which will be decided over 24 stages starting from Andrews Factory, St Joseph on Saturday at 9:01 a.m. and ending with the SuperSpecial event the next afternoon at Simpson Motors.
