Britain’s Frank Bird will this year realise his long-held ambition to compete in Sol Rally Barbados, the event won twice in a Ford Focus WRC07 by his father Paul. Having started the season with victory in the Brands Hatch Winter Stages (January 15), the team confirmed that Bird and co-driver Jack Morton, who sat with ‘Birdy’ when he finished third in Sol RB18, will enter the FIA R5 class in a Dom Buckley Motorsport-prepared Ford Fiesta Rally2.While Frank’s main focus is to build a career in GT and endurance racing, he has still managed to compete in 25 stage rallies since his debut at Donington Park in March 2019, where he finished fifth. He claimed his first win in the Lee Holland Memorial Stages at the Anglesey race circuit two weeks later, and his first on gravel, the Greystoke Stages, in July.Those early victories and eight more came in the Focus in which his father had won in Barbados, which was retired at the end of 2020 for a rebuild. Since he switched to the more nimble Frank Bird Poultry/PBM/Hagar/Aico Fiesta, a further four victories have followed, although a repeat of his Greystoke win was thwarted by an off-road excursion.
