[1]Edward Corbin wins second Champion Driver title
The Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) 2022 Roll of Honour is now complete with Stephen Nicholls confirmed as Autocross Overall Champion after the final round of the Oasis-sponsored grass roots championship at Bushy Park earlier this month (December 4). He joins two-time Champion Driver Edward Corbin and multiple MudDogs Champion Driver and Navigator Leslie Alleyne and Chris O’Neal as the season’s title-winners.
The BRC Driver’s & Class Championships ended at the Winter Rally in October, when Corbin claimed his seventh Modified 1 class win of the season in his Daihatsu Charmant. With co-driver Johnathan Alleyne, he dropped only two points from the maximum possible of 143, having won the title with a 100 per cent win rate in 2019, after many years of near misses since first losing out to a tie-break in 2003.
Their margin of victory was 10 points over Ryan Wood and Miranda Ho (Clubman 2 BimmaCup), who had started the final round with a chance of the title should Corbin falter. Competition has been tight in C2, with Wood’s closest rivals for the season, 2021 BimmaCup Champion Sean Corbin and Emily Kinch, taking the class win in three of the eight rounds; they finished fourth overall, all four new names at the sharp end of the Rally Club standings in the recent past. Reigning Champions Stuart Maloney and Kristian Yearwood (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) won the hotly-contested FIA R5 class for the second consecutive year, but Maloney’s retirement from day two of Sol Rally Barbados cost him dear in his defence of the title and he finished third, another 10 points adrift.
With an impressive performance and a reliable Toyota Starlet, Darren Lashley and co-driver Jason Harewood landed victory in SuperModified 1 and fifth overall, more new names in the BRC spotlight. Winner of C3 Stuart Garcia and Rasheed Smith finished sixth overall in their BimmaCup Too, with Logan Watson and Andrew Croney (BMW M3) seventh, also winners of M3. The top 10 was completed by former Champion Driver Neil Corbin and Matthew Staffner, who switched classes this year to M2 in a Toyota GT86 CS-R3, WRC class winners Dane Skeete and Tyler Mayhew (Subaru Impreza WRC S12) and Pierre Clarke and Ezra Gibbs, who beat fellow Honda Civic crew Jermin Pope and Aaron Kirton to second in M1 behind Edward Corbin by just three points.
Watson added the 2wd Championship to his class honours, beating Champion Driver Corbin to the title by 12 points, with Neil Corbin third, another nine behind. Skeete was the 4wd Champion for the third time in four years, finishing 28 points ahead of Maloney, with Britain’s Rob Swann third, having driven both his Ford Fiesta R5 and Impreza S12B during the year with various co-drivers.
After the BRC Chefette MudDogs Safari Championship had been lost to Covid-19 protocols last year - the events could not easily take place in a non-spectator environment - normal service was resumed in 2022, although only four rounds were run. Having opted out of competition after collecting their seventh and sixth MudDogs titles respectively, navigational rally veterans Leslie Alleyne and Chris O’Neal returned in March to give their new Suzuki Jimny a maiden victory.
Two further wins in May and June – Alleyne’s 10th in the Rally Club’s oldest event – set them on course for another title each, third place in September being their dropped score. But for not starting ‘The June’, Ben Norris and Kirk Watkins might have had a better chance of challenging them but finished second; Gary Mendes was third in the Driver standings, Warrick Eastmond third in the Navigators table.
Class B was won by Adam Hunte and Samantha Gibbs after a good tussle all season with Joel Smith and Simon Parravicino, while Luke Cozier and Ben Moore deserve special mention for the class win on ‘The June’. In an encouraging turnout after the pandemic, 50 drivers and navigators participated, a significant number of them newcomers.
Claiming his third consecutive victory in the 2wd Race Tyres class, Stephen Nicholls finally became Overall BRC Autocross Champion, the competition sponsored for the first time by Oasis and run over five rounds at Bushy Park. Driving his familiar Nissan March, he has been knocking on the door of the title since 2020, when he finished third overall, then second last year, with three class wins this season enough for a winning margin of four points. His campaign may have benefitted from the close battle in the growing 4wd Street Tyres class, which produced second and third overall, Kofe Jean-Baptiste (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX & Evo X) and Tfphill Juman (Evo VII), who were separated by only two points. These two had shared the class wins with Jevon Lashley (Evo X), who finished fifth overall, Juman and Lashley also the top two among the Motoring News Rookies.
Fourth overall and second in class to Nicholls was Andros Welch (Toyota GT86), while the top six was completed by six-time Autocross Champion Chris McFarlane, who topped the 2wd Street Tyres class three times in his BimmaCup and once at the wheel of a Nissan 350Z, loaned to him by Carl Millar. Cheryl-Ann Hurley was the only driver among the Ladies to contest every round, so regained the title she last won in 2020 driving a Hyundai Ioniq and also sharing Ryan Rock’s Toyota Starlet.
BRC Driver’s Championship
Final Overall Positions after round 8:
1st Edward Corbin (M1 Automotive Art/Valvoline/Pro Sales/Cargo BGI/Hilti Daihatsu Charmant), 141 points
2nd Robert Ryan Wood (C2 Carter’s Pitstop/Power King Batteries/C&A Autobody Repair/Guava Tech/Hilti/West Lake/Medical Massage Specialist BimmaCup), 131pts
3rd Stuart Maloney (FIA R5 Rock Hard/VP Fuels/Chevron/Bushy Park/Sign Station Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 121pts
4th Sean Corbin (C2 Super-S Premium Lubricants/Kikks Slippers/Carters Pitstop/Westlake Tires/Gunk BimmaCup), 119pts
5th Darren Lashley (SM1 HEL Performance/Hi-Speed Performance Parts/Starboy Performance/Lashley’s Auto Garage/High Maintenance Detailing Toyota Starlet), 117pts
6th Stuart Garcia (C3 Kirba Inc/Smith’s Engineering Works/Guava Tech BimmaCup Too), 113pts; etc
BRC Class Championship
Final Positions after round 8:
WRC: 1st Dane Skeete (Sol/CO Williams Sand & Lime/Automotive Art Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 107 points
FIA R5: 1st Maloney, 121pts; 2nd Roger Hill (Esso/MaxMeyer Paints/MotorMac Skoda Fabia R5), 95pts; 3rd Josh Read (Automotive Art Ford Fiesta R5), 92pts; etc
Modified 4: 1st Mark Thompson (Glassesco/Automotive Art/NKM Clothing/Bio Beauty Day Spa Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 95pts
SuperModified 2: 1st Roger Mayers (Chefette/Rubis/Frosteez/Hankook/Sign Depot Toyota WR Starlet), 71pts; 2nd Adrian Linton (Ravensden/JAD Performance/Helping Hands Foundation Vauxhall Astra VXR), 66pts; 3rd Andrew Jones (Gales Agro Products/Kepro Veterinarian Solutions/Southern Surf Beach Apartments/AP Jones Pharmacy/Weetabix/Quality Tyre Ford Escort MkII), 57pts; etc
SM1: 1st Lashley, 117pts
M3: 1st Logan Watson (Cargo BGI/Enermax Ltd/Luxe Caribbean Properties/It’s Barbados/Sign Depot/Bajan Pure Water/Stihl/Hankook Tires BMW M3), 110pts; 2nd Ahmed Esuf (Express Imports Inc/Y Esuf Auto Clinic/Prosales/Premier Diamonds BMW M3), 52pts
M2: 1st Neil Corbin (Nassco Limited/H Jason Jones/Auto Solutions/Stamina Energy Drink/Pressout Performance Toyota GT86 CS-R3), 108pts
M1: 1st E Corbin, 141pts; 2nd Pierre Clarke (SDRR Hydrualics/Camp’s Auto Service Honda Civic), 104pts; 3rd Jermin Pope (Glassesco/PEG Farms/Good Time Snacks/NKM Clothing/Bio Beauty Day Spa/Automotive Art/Industries Job/C & A Auto Body Repair Honda Civic), 101pts; etc
Historic 2: 1st Harold Morley (Spectrum Antimicrobials Inc Porsche 911RS), 41pts
Clubman 3: 1st Garcia, 113pts; 2nd Kevin Armstrong (Armstrong Auto/Pet Arts BMW 325i), 59pts
C2: 1st Wood, 131pts; 2nd S Corbin, 119pts; 3rd Sacha Soodeen (SMJ/Kure Oxygen Water/Turbo Energy BimmaCup), 95pts; etc
C1: 1st Jason Tull (Jay-T’s Auto Services/Shalom Management Services Peugeot 106 Rallye S2), 85pts
Group B: 1st Calvin Briggs (Flying Bell Farms Ford Sierra), 52pts
BRC 4wd Championship: 1st Skeete, 136pts; 2nd Maloney, 108pts; 3rd Swann - ENG, 88pts; 4th Hill, 80pts; 5th Read, 77pts; 6th Thompson, *66pts; etc
* tie-break rules applied for final positions
BRC 2wd Championship: 1st Watson, 107pts; 2nd E Corbin, 95pts; 3rd N Corbin, 86pts; 4th R Mayers, 71pts; 5th Pope, 55pts; 6th Barry Mayers (SM2 Chefette/Rubis/Frosteez/Hankook/Sign Depot Ford Fiesta), *52pts; etc
* tie-break rules applied for final positions
Chefette MudDogs Safari Championship
Final positions after round 4
Overall Drivers:
1st Leslie Alleyne (POD Store/Maxxis Suzuki Jimny), 180 points
2nd Ben Norris (Jeep Rubicon), 176pts
3rd Gary Mendes (G&G Sales and Service Daihatsu Rocky), 166pts
4th Christopher King (Suzuki Jimny), 162pts
5th Stephen Mayers (Toyota Hilux), 160pts; etc
Overall Navigators:
1st Chris O’Neal (POD Store/Maxxis Suzuki Jimny), 180pts
2nd Kirk Watkins (Jeep Rubicon), 176pts
3rd Christopher King (Suzuki Jimny), 162pts
4th David Reece (Toyota Hilux), 160pts
5th Samantha Gibbs (Doverwood Projects Mitsubishi L200 & Nissan Patrol), 150pts; etc
Class B Drivers & Navigators:
1st Adam Hunte/Samantha Gibbs (Doverwood Projects Mitsubishi L200 & Nissan Patrol), 180pts; 2nd Joel Smith/Simon Parravicino (Suzuki Samurai & Jeep Wrangler), 172pts
Oasis BRC Autocross Championship
Final Overall positions after round 5:
1st Stephen Nicholls (Nissan March), 71 points
2nd Kofe Jean-Baptiste (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX & Evo X), 67pts
3rd Tfphill Juman (Lancer Evo VII), 65pts
4th Andros Welch (Toyota GT86), 63pts
5th Jevon Lashley (Lancer Evo X), 62pts; etc
4wd (Race Tyres): 1st Omar Boodhoo (Subaru Impreza WRX), 11pts 4wd (Street Tyres): 1st Jean-Baptiste, 67pts; 2nd Juman, 65pts; 3rd Lashley, 62pts; etc
2wd (Race Tyres): 1st Nicholls, 71pts; 2nd Welch, 63pts; 3rd Matthew Durant (GT86), 55pts; etc 2wd (Street Tyres): 1st Christopher McFarlane - JAM (BimmaCup & Nissan 350Z), 60pts; 2nd Scott Cooley (Suzuki Swift Sport & BimmaCup), 48pts; 3rd Roystone Hinkson (Peugeot 205GTi), 44pts; etc
Motoring News Rookies: 1st Juman, 65pts; 2nd Lashley, 62pts; 3rd Cooley, 48pts; etc
Ladies: 1st Cheryl-Ann Hurley (Hyundai Ioniq & Toyota Starlet), 33pts; 2nd Elizabeth Truax (Swift Sport), 12pts; 3rd Leslie Evanson (Swift Sport), 8pts; etc
Juniors: 1st Seth Edwards (Swift Sport), 5pts
For media information only. No regulatory value.
For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com [8]
web sites: www.rallybarbados.net [9]; www.barbadosrallyclub.com [10]
