Saturday, May 7 2011
Penrith rally driver Paul Bird’s hopes of a record breaking third successive win on the Manx Telecom Rally were dashed early today when he slid off the road and into retirement on SS7.
Along with Scottish co driver Kirsty Riddick, the Frank Bird Poultry-sponsored Ford Focus WRC driver was in command after leading overnight by nearly half a minute in the changeable conditions around the Manx lanes but dropped time on this morning’s first stage due to a wrong tyre choice.
The former ANCRO National Champion pushed hard to try and make up time and ended up understeering into a ditch and whereby he eventually extricated the car, too much time had been lost for him to continue.
Paul Bird: “This about sums up my luck, I must have broken some mirrors lately! We were well in command after last night’s stages and everything was looking good but I ended up just slipping off into a ditch and that was game over. Hopefully this is the end of this bad run and I can concentrate on winning next weekend’s Plains Rally.”
The Plains Rally, which forms round four of the BTRDA Rally Series which Bird is contesting this year, takes place next Saturday 14th May.
