1979 World Rally champion Bjorn Waldegard and Ireland's Kris Meeke, a pace-maker in the Junior WRC in recent seasons, will compete in the Sol Rally Barbados 2008 later on this month.
Their entries were confirmed this week during a media conference at the Hilton Hotel, just outside the island's capital Bridgetown, called to announce the start of a three-year sponsorship deal agreed between the organising Barbados Rally Club and the Sol Group, the Caribbean's largest independent oil company.
Winner of 16 WRC events and podium finisher in a further 17, Waldegard will drive a Porsche 911, the type of car in which he claimed his first international victory in the Monte Carlo Rally in 1969.
The car is owned by former British Historic and National Rally champion Steve Perez, a regular competitor in Barbados in recent years, initially in his ex-Hannu Mikkola Audi Quattro Sport and then in an ex-works Ford Focus WRC.
Waldegard has already driven another car from the Perez stable, having finished second in the Post-Historic class of the opening round of this year's British Historic Rally Championship, the Robin Hood Forest Stages, in March. Then, he drove an ex-works Lancia Stratos, the model in which he claimed four of his World Championship victories.
Still regarded as one of the world's best-ever rally drivers, Waldegard's outing in Barbados is being sponsored by Porsche and the island's Porsche importer, Simpson Motors; although yet to be confirmed, he is expected to have the help of an experienced local co-driver.
For Meeke, whose personal sponsors Pirelli and
Red Bull are supporting the trip, his participation marks a return to the island, after visiting as a spectator last year. He will compete with regular co-driver Paul Nagle in a Toyota Corolla World Rally Car owned by Trinidad-based Jamaican businessman John Powell.
![Bjorn Waldegard at the East African Safari Rally 2005 [Pic credit: www.mcklein.de]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/187760.jpg)
