lve months after finishing runner-up on his favourite event, Penrith rally driver Paul Bird had to settle for second position behind Ulsterman Kris Meeke and co-driver Paul Nagle once again after a brave challenge fell just short on last weekend's SOL Rally Barbados.

Driving the supercasino.com, Vent-Axia and Kick Energy-backed Ford Focus WRC07 which was flown in specially for the event, Bird and Northallerton co-driver Ian Windress were hoping to go one better and after a good start, they trailed Meeke in his Subaru WRC S9 by 21 seconds at the overnight halt on Saturday.

With Sunday's super-fast stages to look forward to, Bird tried to respond and set four fastest times to Meeke's three as they battled it out at speeds of around 200kmh for the lead but in the end, Meeke's early advantage proved to be enough and he ended up winning by just 16.75 seconds after the two-day event.

After the finish on Sunday night, Bird remarked: "It just doesn't get much better than this; this really is the best rally in the world. The crowds, the organisers, the enthusiasm and the people are just fantastic. Of course I'm disappointed not to win but we gave it our best shot and to lose to a driver of Kris' quality, who leads the Intercontinental Rally Challenge as Peugeot UK's works driver isn't too bad. But I'm even more thrilled that I beat my old mate Steve Perez once again!"2009 SOL Rally Barbados - Results

1 K Meeke/P Nagle (Subaru Impreza WRC S9) - 55 mins 11.84 secs2 P Bird/I Windress (Ford Focus WRC07) - 55:28.59 3 P Bourne/S Maloney (Subaru Impreza WRC S9) - 56:24.914 K Procter/D Bellerby (Subaru Impreza WRC S7) - 56:50.705 R Hill/G Gittens (Toyota Corolla WRC) - 56:51.566 T Manning/D Edwards (Ford Escort WRC) - 56:57.467 J Panton/M Fennell (Ford Focus WRC) - 57:09.998 B Gale/C Edghill (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6) - 58:25.049 N Armstrong/B Ward (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6) - 59:06.7610 G Noel/K Yearwood (Mitsubishi Evo 9) -59:52.84