Bird’s wings clipped by technical woes
PENRITH poultry magnate Paul Bird was left frustrated when technical woes forced him out of this weekend’s PokerStars Rally.
Birdy, now back in action on four wheels, had been hoping for a strong result as he made his much-anticipated return to the super-fast asphalt at the Isle of Man.
But the chequered flag came out prematurely for the PBM boss, and he was forced to park up early on Friday night.
Following his win at the Eventsigns Woodpecker Stages Rally a few months ago, Bird and his County Durham team-mate Jack Morton had been confident they could run well as they both returned to the famous Manx roads after a few years out.
But from the word ‘go’ on Friday night, his Dom Buckley Motorsport/IRS-prepared Ford Focus WRC08 hit problems with gear selection issues which hampered the former National champion.
Bravely trying to drive around the intermittent electrical problem, which meant the car was selecting gears at random, Bird set the fourth fastest time on the opening test in the dark.
Despite the problems, Bird battled on and upped his pace further, moving up to third, where he stayed for the next five stages.
But on the seventh stage it all went wrong as a combination of the gearbox issues led to the crew demolishing a chicane.
Despite minimal damage to the car, Bird suffered a shoulder injury in the impact and opted to retire rather than risk further damage to the car – which is being flown out to Barbados this week to take part in back-to-back events on the Caribbean island over the next two weekends.
“It’s always fantastic to compete on the Isle of Man but this weekend wasn’t to be for us,” he said last night. “From the start, I knew there was something not right with the car when it started selecting its own gears going to the first stage.
“It got worse as the night went on and at one point, I was in sixth gear when I don’t even have a sixth gear! In the end, it caused us to have a big shunt at a chicane and it just wasn’t safe to continue.
“I’ve banged my shoulder really bad, so I need to get that checked out and although the damage to the car is minimal, I didn’t want to give the lads a load more work before the car goes to Barbados, so we called it a day.”
While double Sol Rally Barbados winner Birdy is in action at the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Winter Rally over the next couple of weekends, his Be Wiser Ducati Superbike Team are in the Far East for the 51st annual Macau Grand Prix, where rider Glenn Irwin will be back in action and looking for a better result than his early retirement last year.