motorsport By Tony Brunskill

Last updated 19:37, Thursday, 28 February 2008

PENRITH chicken supremo Paul Bird will be competing his Subaru Impreza WRC in tomorrow’s Malcolm Wilson Rally.

Just champion: Paul Bird on his way to victory in last year's Malcolm Wilson Rally. Bird has won the rally three times

Paul has won the event three times and he will be determined to claim a record fourth, so the forest stages will be ringing with waste gate barking as he battles it out with rival Steve Petch .

The rally starts in Cockermouth at 8am tomorrow, in the north lakes forest stages for 45 miles of high speed action.

Crowds will be watching the field of more than 100 cars tackling some of the finest stages in the UK. Parking is only permitted in the designated car parks and not the road side and the police will be out in force to catch those who park illegally or drive inconsiderately. 

Like most Cumbrians I always had faith in the ability of Langwathby’s young racing driver Oliver Turvey and it has been rewarded as he had his first outing in his new F3 car last week.

Straight out of the box and in an unfamiliar car he earned top place in the first practice and second in the next to lay a marker for the coming season.

With great family support and his own huge commitment and enthusiasm, Oliver has risen from small karts as a youngster, though Formula BMW to F3 with odd diversions into salon racing and he has impressed in everything he has done.

His talent was rewarded by winning the prestigious Autosport McLaren Young Driver of the Year 18 months ago and his talent will surely see him make the grade to F1 and become only the second Cumbrian to do so with Cliff Alison, from Brough, the only other Cumbrian to make the grade in the 1960s and 70s.

Oliver is racing competitively at Oulton Park at Easter weekend with practice on Saturday and the race proper on Easter Monday where I will be with his father Andrew to cheer him on, not that he needs it.

Oliver combines his racing ambitions with his studies for an engineering degree keeping himself super fit, including training at the North Lakes Hotel Spa at Penrith when he is at home.

So why not come down to Oulton Park and enjoy one of the UK’s most scenic and enjoyable circuits which has recently been recently refurbished by Jonathan Palmer’s Motorsport Vision company which also owners Brands Hatch, Cadwell Park, Snetterton and Bedford Autodrome?

I attended a pre-season launch at Oulton this week along with fellow scribes and I personally enjoyed presentations from drivers of vintage to GT, British Touring car to super karts and a phenomenally rapid Kawasaki British Super Bike.

Moreover, yours truly had an awesome blat round the track in a spine-tingling and brand new Aston Martin 4.2 V8 racer straight from ProDrive followed by a rather more sedate lap or two in a 2.0 litre 1930s racing Lagonda.

For those of a classic bent, the must-see show is the Historic Motorsport Race Retro at Stoneleigh Park near Coventry on March 14 to 16.

There will be a mixture of displays and live action, including some of the most exotic rally cars of the past such as the banned Group B cars which were so powerful and difficult to drive that they caused many accidents.

There will also be Historic Kart demonstrations and live Autotests plus trade standsw with everything from a horn for a 1920s car to bolt-on goodies and performance parts for classics.

Finally, don’t forget  to book your tickets for the Goodwood Festival of Speed on July 11-13 and the Goodwood Revival on September 19 -21 as tickets sell faster that Matthew Wilson pedals his WRC Ford Focus on rallies.