Two highly rated Irish drivers have moved up the entries from that country to tackle Sol Rally Barbados next month.
Joe McQuillan, who confirmed his entry in Group A, and New York-based Martin Donnelly, both newcomers to the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international rally and the latest Irish drivers to confirm entry as entries closed last week.
McQuillan has been rallying since the late 1990s and has won the Mid Antrim Championship titles five times in the past nine years in a modified Honda Civic, but last year was at the wheel of a McGrath Motor Sports Ireland-prepared Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII, which is on its way to Barbados.
He and co-driver Neill Finlay, who sat with Glenn Campbell in his Nissan Micra Kit Car last year, when they finished second in Modified 5 will take on the opposition in Modified 8-A for the important event.
Donnelly, who has been driving in a Ford Mustang, and has been regular competitor in events on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, has twice won the Atlantic Rally Cup in the United States.
With wins in the Black River Stages in up-state New York three years in a row, he was champion in 2008 and 2009, and has also been a regular podium finisher on events in Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Donnelly and co-driver Colin Fitzgerald will be in the Eire Concrete Inc. Evo IX which has been prepared and run by Ryan Rally Preparations.
Prior to the Barbados event they had tackled the Donnelly Group Circuit of Ireland Rally over the Easter weekend at which the Barbados Rally Club enjoyed major presence as the final element of its European promotion for Rally Barbados 2012.
