Procter’s back for Sol Rally
Marking the 20th anniversary of his first trip to compete in the island, Britain’s Kevin Procter will return for Sol Rally Barbados next month with the Ford Fiesta S2000T in which he has finished fourth three times since 2017.
Texas-based Scotsman Fraser Louden and fellow-Scot Ian Barclay in a Mitsubishi Evos also confirmed their participation, bringing the entries in the four-wheel-drive classes to 20.
The 33rd running of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event, will start with a floodlit SuperSpecial at Bushy Park race circuit on Friday, June 9, with two days of action in the northern and eastern parishes culminating in a daylight SuperSpecial and Rally Finish back at the St Philip facility on Sunday.
The Rally Show and First Citizens King of the Hill will be staged on the previous weekend, June 3 and 4.
Procter will be competing for the 16th time since 2003, with 11 finishes in the top 10 to his credit.
He has competed in seven different cars, a Hyundai, two Subarus and four Fords, and with six different co-drivers, with Patrick Walsh, who was part of a disappointing retirement in 2019, returning for the fifth time.
Walsh competed in the island twice with Procter and the United Kingdom’s Graham Coffey, with whom he finished eighth and 12th in 2017 and 2018 respectively in a Subaru Impreza WRC S12B.
A veteran of more than 25 years in the co-driver’s seat, Walsh has won multiple Welsh, Irish or British titles, most recently the British Rally Championship with fellow Welshman Matt Edwards in 2019.
Louden, whose business is based in Houston, Texas, returns for the fifth time, aiming to avoid a repeat of 2020 when he looked set to maintain his 100 per cent finishing record.
However, one corner from home and in sight of the finish marshals, he struck the Vaucluse Raceway chicane in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Proto, losing what would have been his highest overall finish, as he was lying 11th at the time.
His co-driver is Scotland’s Ashleigh Will, who was with him in 2020 and also in the previous year’s HO2 Construction Winter Rally in Barbados, finishing 10th overall and second in WRC. (PR)
