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Bird Not Here To Finish Second
Cumbrian rally driver Paul Bird returns to this weekend's Legend Fires North West Stages Rally in Blackpool pledging to put his misfortune behind him after his fifth place finish on last year's event.
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Bird, from Langwathby, produced one of the best drives of his career when he stormed back from 81st overall following a timing error on the opening night to clinch a sensational fifth place overall on his debut.
Now, he's returning and also hoping to end his run of bad luck which has seen him unusually retire from his last three events in the Fuchs Titan, Rapid Solicitors and Kick Energy-backed Frank Bird Poultry Ford Focus WRC07 he'll be sharing with Welsh co driver Aled Davies as regular co driver Kirsty Riddick is still injured following the freak service area accident at Croft recently.
The British Superbike and MotoGP team boss, who was National Rally Champion in 2005, is vowing to give it his all on the popular two-day event which sees many of Britain's top drivers in action.
Paul Bird: "I'm not going to finish second, that's for sure! I really enjoyed the event last year and that's why I'm back but with the road penalty, it was always going to be tough. This year, I'm the fittest I've been in years and now I have an idea of the stages, I'm going all out for victory. I've drafted Aled in who is one of the most experienced and successful co-drivers around so I'm looking forward to it and to give my old mates Bardy and Procter a run for their money!"
The event gets underway in Blackpool at 18.30 tomorrow (Friday) with a loop of stages in darkness before the overnight halt. The remainder of the 75 stage miles are tackled in daylight on Saturday before the finish at around 18.00 hours.
PaddockTalk Perspective
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Also in WRC Rally News 2010: |
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