Steve Perez will be returning to Bournemouth once again this February for Rallye Sunseeker; fresh from a superb 3rd overall on the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic Rally in December. Using his more familiar, Kick Energy sponsored, ex Marcus Gronholm Ford Focus 2007 WRC Steve, will once again team up for this year’s event with Raglan based Paul Spooner on the notes.

Once again Tim Ashton and BTR Preparations will run the car, the same team that ran his Safari historic Datsun 260Z and of whom Steve said at the finish of that event “A massive thanks to Tim and the whole of the BTR team as the car has been perfect and ran faultless throughout.” This kind of preparation bodes well for his attempt at this year’s Rally Sunseeker.

Steve, the 2004 ANCRO National Rally Champion as well as the 2003 British Historic Rally Champion told Rallye Sunseeker “ I am looking forward to getting down to Bournemouth for the opening round. It’s a good event,  and very ably run although it is a little bit different to East Africa where I was last competing” he laughed

He went on to say “the forests are always in good condition, but it will be interesting to see what they will be like after all the recent bad weather we have had” He continued by saying “Hopefully now the likes of Marcus, Roger and Birdy will be down as well, and its good to see Kenny come back over for a run once again, to add to the competition, on top of that I want to beat Birdy, I mean we finished higher than him on a WRC event by completing Rally GB, and it’s the usual thing of the loser out of us pays for the Champagne all night at FYEO in Bournemouth and I have not paid there for years, so Yeah I am really looking forward to February ”

Steve Perez, as chairman of Global Brands will be well represented on Rallye Sunseeker, with VKTV once again covering the event on the Friday in Poole and naturally on the Saturday Stages, they will also be in evidence at the Saturday Spectator Stage at Somerley Park with the Kick Energy merchandising girls and on hand to spice up proceedings.

Also speaking to Rallye Sunseeker, was co-driver Paul Spooner who added “ We are not too sure of our plans after Sunseeker, but we are possibly looking at the BRC Historic championship in the Stratos, but the thing is we are coming to Bournemouth and we are one up already on Birdy in that we have our entry in before him. So already he is trying to catch Steve and myself up y’know”

When asked about the changes to the rally format he said” Makes no difference at all about the Friday, the rally will be won on the stages, and again the organizers have provided us with a challenging event to compete on and at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about. It’s the competition that we are after and the battles with the likes of Marcus, Paul and Roger and of course Kenny is coming over from Northern Ireland, and bringing Richard Cathcart too, so it is shaping up to be a really good days rallying down in Bournemouth.”