[1]Skeete and Read lead 4wd and 2wd respectively
Chris Hoad has eased ahead in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Champion Driver title chase after his third straight win in the competitive and well-subscribed Clubman 2 class in his Rookie season in the Championship. Having shared the overall lead with Stuart Maloney and Josh Read after the Double-Header Sprint at Bushy Park in June, he has now moved ahead of them by two and four points respectively, with Adam Mallalieu now tied for third place with Read.
Round three at the Vaucluse Raceway (July 18) was organised by the Motoring Club Barbados Inc (MCBI) and shared with the BRC for championship points; Covid-19 restrictions caused the planned Double-Header closed-road sprint to be replaced by a single points-scoring RallySprint, which has reduced the BRC Championship from eight to seven rounds. In this unusual format for the BRC, points were based on the fastest time from the three qualifying rounds and the first knockout round for each class.
Driving against nine other BimmaCup drivers in Clubman 2, Hoad’s winning time (set in the Quarter-Final) was 1.8 seconds quicker than that set by Derek Edwards, scoring his first points of the year, having withdrawn himself from the Bushy Park results when he realised his tyres did not conform to the regulations. Third quickest was Wayne Archer, who now lies second in the C2 standings, with 32 points to Hoad’s 45.
Hoad, who finished second in VRMSC’s BimmaCup last year, said: “I didn’t know what to expect when I decided to do the whole Rally Club Championship, as Clubman 2 is heavily subscribed with good drivers. I’m just trying to keep focused one event at a time. Although I visited the podium a couple of times in 2019 and 2020, my first overall win was in the RallySprint in June, a week after the BRC double header at Bushy Park, and now the Motoring Club RallySprint. Even though it’s not my strongest discipline, I’m looking to keep the streak going in the BimmaCup Rallycross on August 14.”
Second in the Champion Driver table, two points adrift of Hoad, Maloney (Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo) was beaten by just 18/100ths at VRW by Adam Mallalieu (Ford Fiesta), who claimed his first class win, having finished second on points to Maloney at Bushy Park. The 17-year-old is also now joint third overall, two further points behind, with Josh Read (Toyota Starlet), who was beaten to the SuperModified 2 class win in the RallySprint by Andrew Jones (Ford Escort MkII), both suffering from a lower points haul as the class was undersubscribed – three starters are needed for maximum points to be scored.
Read and Jones are also first and second in the 2wd Championship, with Reigning Champion Driver Neil Corbin (SM1 Starlet) third, also fifth in the overall title chase and another scoring less for his win at VRW in an undersubscribed class. Dane Skeete (Subaru Impreza WRC S12) leads the 4wd Championship by two points from Jamaica’s Jeff Panton (Ford Fiesta WRC), who notched up his first WRC win of the season by just nine-tenths in the RallySprint; Maloney is third and Mallalieu fourth.
Following the postponement of Sol Rally Barbados and King of the Hill, the Rally Club’s Committee of Management is considering the possible use of the September dates for rounds of the Club’s Driver’s & Class Championships, run in whatever format can be accommodated within the Government protocols in force at the time.
BRC Class Championship
Positions after round 3
WRC: 1st Dane Skeete (Sol/CO Williams Sand & Lime/Automotive Art Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 37 points; 2nd Jeffrey Panton – JAM (Sandals Resorts/Rubis/Bushy Park Barbados KIG Ford Fiesta WRC), 35pts
FIA R5: 1st Stuart Maloney (Rock Hard Cement/Bushy Park Barbados/VP Fuels/Chevron/Maloney Racing Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo), 43pts; 2nd Adam Mallalieu (Terra Caribbean Ford Fiesta R5), 41pts; equal 3rd Roger Hill (Esso/MaxMeyer Paints/MotorMac Skoda Fabia R5) & Andrew Mallalieu (Terra Caribbean Ford Fiesta R5), 30pts; etc
SuperModified 2: 1st Josh Read (Weetabix Toyota Starlet), 41pts; 2nd Andrew Jones (Gale’s Agro/A P Jones Pharmacy/Southern Surf Beach Apartments Ford Escort MkII), 35pts; 3rd Barry Mayers (Chefette/Rubis/Quality Tyre/Sign Depot Ford Fiesta), 26pts; etc
SM1: 1st Neil Corbin (Nassco/Jason Jones/Auto Solutions/Emtage Electric/Pressout Performance Toyota Starlet), 39pts; 2nd Tremaine Forde-Catwell (Cheese Autoglass/MIPA Autocolor Daihatsu Charmant), 33pts
Modified 2: 1st Jamal Brathwaite (Consumers Guarantee Insurance/Stylez Auto Spa/TEC Barbados/Caribbean Auto Glass Honda Civic Type-R), 22pts
M1: 1st Geoffrey Noel (Toyota Corolla), 11pts
Historic 2: 1st Harold Morley - ENG (Spectrum Antimicrobials Porsche 911), 11pts
Clubman 3: 1st Stuart Garcia (Guava Tech/Smith’s Engineering Works/Kirba Inc BimmaCup Too), 33pts
C2: 1st Chris Hoad (Subway/Dasani Water/Guava Tech BimmaCup), 45pts; 2nd Wayne Archer (BimmaCup), 32pts; equal 3rd Jason Downey (BimmaCup), Harold Morley - ENG (Spectrum Antimicrobials BimmaCup) & Natya Soodeen (BimmaCup), 26pts; etc
C1: 1st Jason Tull (Jay-T’s Auto Services/SRG Engineering/SP Imports/Redline Performance Imports/BG Prod/CA Autobody Repairs Peugeot 106 Rallye S2), 33pts; 2nd Neil Barnard (Suzuki Swift Sport), 26pts
BRC 4wd Championship: 1st D Skeete, 41pts; 2nd Panton – JAM, 39pts; 3rd Maloney, 36pts; 4th Adam Mallalieu, 31pts; equal 5th Hill & Andrew Mallalieu, 24pts; 7th Paul Horton - TCI (FIA R5 Java Island/HO2 Construction/Sky Motorsport Ford Fiesta R5), 21pts; 8th Stan Hartling - TCI (FIA R5 Bambarra Rum Ford Fiesta R5), 17pts; 9th Suleman Esuf (FIA R5 Ford Fiesta R5), 9pts
BRC 2wd Championship: 1st Read, 43pts; 2nd Jones, 37pts; 3rd N Corbin, 31pts; 4th B Mayers, 26pts; 5th Hoad, 19pts; 6th Brathwaite, 18pts; equal 7th Suleman Esuf (SM2 BMW 1M) & Garcia, 17pts; 9th Forde-Catwell, 15pts; 10th Archer, 12pts; etc
For media information only. No regulatory value.
For further media information, robin@bradfax.com [2]
Web site: www.barbadosrallyclub.com [3]
