[1]Close battles between R5s and front-running 2wds
Dane Skeete and Tyler Mayhew kept their Subaru Impreza WRC S12 at the top of the time sheets for all but one of the eight runs during yesterday’s (Sunday) Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Shakedown Double Header, winning the opening two rounds of the 2022 BRC Driver’s & Class Championships. Contested in both directions on a popular stage between Malvern and Wilson Hill in St John, the event marked the club’s return to road rallying for the first time since December 2020 and attracted hundreds of enthusiastic spectators to enjoy an action-packed day of competition.
Throughout the day, reigning BRC Champion Driver Stuart Maloney and Kristian Yearwood in their Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo were Skeete’s closest challengers and the only crew to head him during the day, on the second run in the reverse. Southbound from Malvern to Wilson Hill, there was only three-tenths between Skeete and Maloney on the first run, the margin closing by the time they both set their best times on the final run, separated by just 12 hundredths of a second. After lunch, battle rejoined northbound, Skeete a little further ahead by the finish, winning by a margin of 1.87secs.
At the finish, Skeete said: “Today went really well; the one issue we had was a driver error. Some of the R5 cars are very close and we will have to monitor and see how that goes but, as long as the Subaru remains eligible, we are in no rush to head to the R5 class.” Maloney added: “Although Dane is ahead in the WRC car, I'm focused on the R5 class, as everyone is always within striking distance of one other. The car went well from start to finish, despite having a vibration that had me a bit tentative, so I think we still have a good chance to be there at the front for Sol Rally Barbados.”
Behind Skeete and Maloney, there was an enthralling battle between the remaining entries in the R5 class and brothers Barry and Roger Mayers in their rear-wheel-drive SuperModified 2 Ford Fiesta and Toyota WR Starlet. Seconds and split-seconds were swapped back and forth, with all the remaining positions in the top 10 shuffled between the results of the two events.
Jamaica’s Jeff Panton finished third in the first direction, ahead of Barry Mayers, the UK’s Rob Swann, Roger Mayers and the Fabia R5 of Mark Maloney (just six-tenths covered these four); Roger Hill (Fabia R5) was eighth, with Mark Thompson winning Modified 4 in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX and former Group N Champion Brian Gill completing the top 10 at the wheel of Andrew Mallalieu’s Fiesta R5.
Panton said: “Today wasn't a good day, with a flat tyre in the first run, so we were pushing hard to catch back up. Right after the lunch break we had a high speed spin at Easy Hall getting into some marbles after the crest. I'm more and more comfortable in the R5 and we're all close, but the Skodas seem to have the edge on the speed.” Newcomer Gill added: “It was great to be back out after such a long time away and I was grateful for the opportunity; these R5 cars are quite nice to drive.”
In the reverse direction, the key players remained largely the same with similar margins, although Gill slipped to 11th, replaced in the top 10 by Paul Horton of the Turks & Caicos Rally Team, who had triple (and reigning) British Rally Champion Matt Edwards as co-driver in his Fiesta R5, ironically on the same day the 2022 British Championship kicked off with the Corbeau Seats Rally Tendring & Clacton.
While the Mayers brothers were swapping times run-on-run throughout the day, Barry was always ahead when it counted, fourth and fifth overall respectively in the two directions. Third in SM2 both times was Andrew Jones (Ford Escort MkII), but he was unusually far adrift on times, busy entertaining the fans. Barry said: “It was good to shake off some rust a couple weeks ago at the Colleton event after a year and a half off. We've made quite a few changes in that time and are happy with the direction it has gone, but we have a throttle issue to sort heading into Sol Rally Barbados.”
Logan Watson (BMW M3) finished an impressive third in 2wd, splitting the Mayers brothers and ‘Jonesey’ and beating the flamboyant Ahmed Esuf (BMW M3) to the Modified 3 class win by roughly the same margin in both directions, as did Edward Corbin (Daihatsu Charmant) in M1, heading Jermin Pope (Civic) by around 3secs each time. Stuart Garcia (BimmaCup Too) won Clubman 3 both ways, although Greg Cozier in a similar car came within half-a-second in the reverse direction, while honours were shared by BimmaCup drivers Ian Warren and Ryan Wood in C2.
BRC Shakedown Double Header - Sunday, April 24
Results
2022 BRC Driver’s & Class Championships, round 1
1st Dane Skeete/Tyler Mayhew (WRC Sol/CO Williams Sand & Lime/Automotive Art Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 2m 03.71s
2nd Stuart Maloney/Kristian Yearwood (FIA R5 Rock Hard/VP Fuels/Chevron/Bushy Park/Sign Station Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 00.12s
3rd Jeffrey Panton – JAM/Jason Cozier (FIA R5 Rubis/Sandals Resorts/KIG/Birds Nest Spice Blends/Sun Burn Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 02.78s
4th Barry Mayers/Ben Norris (SM2 Chefette/Rubis/Frosteez/Hankook/Sign Depot Ford Fiesta), + 04.04s
5th Rob Swann - ENG/Sean Gill (FIA R5 Blue Sky Luxury/Elegant Hotels/RA Swann Ltd Ford Fiesta R5), + 04.11s
6th Roger Mayers/Barry Ward (SM2 Chefette/Rubis/Frosteez/Hankook/Sign Depot Toyota WR Starlet), + 04.51s
7th Mark Maloney/Justin Maloney (FIA R5 Rock Hard/VP Fuels/Chevron/Bushy Park/Sign Station Skoda Fabia R5), + 04.68s
8th Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (FIA R5 Esso/MaxMeyer Paints/MotorMac Skoda Fabia R5), + 05.30s
9th Mark Thompson/Kurt Seabra - GUY (M4 Glassesco/Automotive Art/NKM Clothing/Bio Beauty Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), + 05.52s
10th Brian Gill/Eric Allamby (FIA R5 Terra Caribbean Ford Fiesta R5), + 05.95s
etc
WRC: 1st D Skeete/Mayhew, 2m 03.71s
FIA R5: 1st S Maloney/Yearwood, 2m 03.83s; 2nd Panton – JAM/J Cozier, + 02.66s; 3rd Swann – ENG/S Gill, + 03.99s; etc
Modified 4: 1st M Thompson/Seabra - GUY, 2m 09.23s; 2nd Avinash Chatrani/Andrew Skeete (iShop Barbados/Axe Solutions Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV), + 03.41s; 3rd George Sherman - USA/Anthony Sherman - USA (Tide Cleaners/Subway Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, + 14.02s; etc
SuperModified 2: 1st B Mayers/Norris, 2m 07.75s; 2nd R Mayers/Ward, + 00.45s; 3rd Andrew Jones/Lindsey Pilkington – ENG (F) (Southern Surf Beach Apartments/AP Jones Pharmacy/Gales Agro Products/Weetabix Ford Escort MkII), + 08.49s; etc
SM1: 1st Darren Lashley/Jason Harewood (Hi-Speed Performance Parts/HEL Performance/Lashley’s Auto Garage Toyota Starlet), 2m 36.14s – 39th o/a
M3: 1st Logan Watson/Andrew Croney (Cargo BGI/Enermax Ltd/Luxe Caribbean Properties/It’s Barbados/Sign Depot/The Drip/Sthil/Bajan Pure Water BMW M3), 2m 10.59s – 11th overall; 2nd Ahmed Esuf/Christopher Clarke (Express Imports/Prosales/Y Esuf Auto Clinic Barbados BMW M3), + 13.95s
M2: 1st Neil Corbin/Matthew Staffner (Nassco Limited/H Jason Jones/Auto Solutions/Pressout Performance Toyota GT86 CS-R3), 2m 20.48s – 18th o/a
M1: 1st Edward Corbin/Johnathan Alleyne (Valvoline/Hilti/Cargo BGI Daihatsu Charmant), 2m 19.00s – 17th o/a; 2nd Jermin Pope/Aaron Kirton (Glassesco Honda Civic), + 03.78s; 3rd Paul Inniss/Jamar Haynes (Trident Insurance/Caribbean Villa Club/Triton Logistics/JJ Racing Team/Caribbean LED Lighting/Essco Honda Civic), + 12.98s; etc
Historic 2: 1st Harold Morley - ENG/Jonathan Wiggins (Spectrum Antimicrobials Inc Porsche 911RS), 2m 35.58s – 38th o/a; 2nd John Corbin/Paul Bourne (Valvoline/Hilti/Cargo BGI Toyota Corolla), + 07.67s
Clubman 3: 1st Stuart Garcia/Rasheed Smith (Smith’s Engineering Works/Kirba Inc BimmaCup Too), 2m 28.27s – 25th o/a; 2nd Kevin Armstrong/Damian Castillo-Marshall (Armstrong Auto/Pet Arts BMW 325i), + 01.50s; 3rd Greg Cozier/Natasha Farnum (F) (Perkins & Sons Barbados Rum BimmaCup Too), + 04.01s
C2: 1st Ryan Wood/Miranda Ho (F) (Carter’s Pitstop/C&A Autobody Repair/Guava Tech/Hilti/West Lake BimmaCup), 2m 26.28s – 23rd o/a; 2nd Ian Warren/Chloe White (F) (Westlake BimmaCup), + 00.34s; 3rd Michael Worme/Daniel Small (Katspraddle Sweet Potato Vodka/COT BimmaCup), + 03.76s; etc
C1: 1st Jason Tull/Omar Archer (Jay-T’s Auto Services/SRG Engineering Peugeot 106 Rallye S2), 2m 38.29s – 42nd o/a
Group B: 1st Shawn Eversley/Ross Callender (Suzuki Swift), 2m 28.39s
2022 BRC Driver’s & Class Championships, round 2
1st D Skeete/Mayhew, 2m 02.74s
2nd S Maloney/Yearwood, + 01.87s
3rd M Maloney/J Maloney, + 02.42s
4th Swann - ENG/S Gill, + 03.73s
5th B Mayers/Norris, + 04.09s
6th Panton – JAM/J Cozier, + 04.24s
7th Hill/Gittens, + 04.62s
8th R Mayers/Ward, + 04.95s
9th Paul Horton - TCI/Matt Edwards - WAL (FIA R5 Java Island/HO2 Construction/Sky Motorsport Ford Fiesta R5), + 05.37s
10th M Thompson/Seabra - GUY, + 05.53s
etc
WRC: 1st D Skeete/Mayhew, 2m 02.74s
FIA R5: 1st S Maloney/Yearwood, 2m 04.61s; 2nd M Maloney/J Maloney, + 00.57s; 3rd Swann – ENG/S Gill, + 01.86s; etc
M4: 1st M Thompson/Seabra - GUY, 2m 08.27s; 2nd Chatrani/A Skeete, + 09.15s; 3rd G Sherman - USA/A Sherman - USA, + 13.36s; etc
SM2: 1st B Mayers/Norris, 2m 06.83s; 2nd R Mayers/Ward, + 00.85s; 3rd Jones/Pilkington – ENG (F), + 08.77s; etc
SM1: 1st Lashley/Harewood, 2m 34.98s – 36th o/a
M3: 1st Watson/Croney, 2m 09.53s – 12th overall; 2nd Esuf/Clarke, + 12.94s
M2: 1st N Corbin/Staffner, 2m 18.17s – 16th o/a
M1: 1st E Corbin/Alleyne, 2m 18.51s – 17th o/a; 2nd Pope/Kirton, + 03.03s; 3rd Inniss/Haynes, + 10.57s; etc
Historic 2: 1st J Corbin/Bourne, 2m 45.68s – 42nd o/a
Clubman 3: 1st Garcia/Smith, 2m 27.27s – 25th o/a; 2nd G Cozier/Farnum (F), + 00.05s; 3rd Armstrong/Castillo-Marshall, + 01.01s
C2: 1st Warren/White (F), 2m 23.45s – 21st o/a; 2nd Wood/Ho (F), + 02.71s; 3rd Worme/Small, + 04.47s; etc
C1: 1st Tull/Archer, 2m 35.85s – 37th o/a
For media information only. No regulatory value.
For further media information, robin@bradfax.com [6]
Web site: www.barbadosrallyclub.com [7]
