[1]
Neil Corbin and Roger Mayers are joint leaders of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Champion Driver title chase after four out of seven rounds. With more than 60 drivers having now scored points in the 2023 Driver’s and Class Championships, there are some new names in the top 10 and some close battles brewing in the classes as the season passes the half-way point.
Champion Driver in 2012 and 2020, Corbin (Toyota GT86 CS-R3) leads Modified 2 with 75 points, a perfect score for the season so far, an achievement matched in SuperModified 2 by Mayers, who also leads the 2wd Championship standings in his Toyota WR Starlet. This marks a welcome return to form for Mayers, who has not been in contention for major honours since 2019.
Clubman 2 leader Ian Warren lies third in his BimmaCup, five points behind on 70, his early-season 100 per cent record of class wins halted on the final day of Sol Rally Barbados when he finished third in class to Derek Edwards and Ryan Wood. With 68 points, 2021 Champion Driver Stuart Maloney is fourth, his Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo one of only three four-wheel-drive cars in the top 10; he leads both the FIA R5 class and the 4wd standings by four points, with Jeff Panton, who was Champion Driver in 2017 & ’18, his closest challenger, the Jamaican also sixth overall in his Fabia Rally2 evo.
An impressive fifth in the standings is another Jamaican, Horatio Brown. In only his first full season of rallying, he leads M1 with 67 points in a Citroen C2R2; having finished second to reigning Champion Driver Edward Corbin in this year’s first three rounds, he and co-driver Leslie Evanson finished their first Rally Barbados as a crew a commendable 19th overall, inheriting the class win when Corbin retired on the final morning.
The closest battle in the classes is in SM1, with just three points spread across the top three drivers, 10 across the top five and three different class-winners so far. Nine drivers have run in the class, a record since the classifications were realigned in 2016, and competition was fierce over the two weekends of First Citizens King of the Hill and Sol RB23. Four set class-winning stage times, another three got into the top three, but the most successful, with 10 stages wins, Tremaine Ford-Catwell (Daihatsu Charmant) retired on the Sunday of RB23, so scored no points, leaving him fifth in the standings. Last year’s SM1 Champion and BRC Rookie of the Year Darren Lashley currently has the upper hand in his Toyota Starlet, as he was the only driver to score in the Shakedown Stages in April. With 45 points, he is one ahead of Jason Cozier, who only acquired his Ford Escort MkI a few weeks ahead of KotH, and three ahead of Roger Jordan (Starlet).
In addition to Maloney’s four-point lead over Panton in FIA R5, there are single-digit margins in four other classes: Kyle Gill (Mitsubishi Mirage RS Clone) leads Wayne Tasker (Opel Corsa B) by five points in C1; both in BMW M3s, Ahmed Esuf leads Logan Watson by six points in M3; America’s George Sherman leads Mark Thompson by seven points in the battle of the M4 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IXs, while Warren leads Edwards by eight points in C2.
There are three more rounds on the calendar, a Double-Header Sprint on August 27, followed by the Winter Rally on October 22. With the now-traditional enhanced scoring system applied to the season finale - 28 points for a win, 23 for second place, 20 for third and so on down to 10 for 10th place – there is still a total of 58 points on the table, so there remains huge scope for a shift in fortunes in the standings, particularly in those closer-fought classes.
BRC Class Championship
Positions after round 4:
WRC: 1st Dane Skeete (Automotive Art/CO Williams Sand & Lime/Sol Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 41 points
FIA R5: 1st Stuart Maloney (Rock Hard Cement/VP Fuels/Chevron/Bushy Park Barbados/Sign Station Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 68pts; 2nd Jeff Panton – JAM (KIG/Sandals Resorts/Bushy Park Barbados Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 64pts; 3rd Kyle Gregg – JAM (B D Gregg Ford Fiesta Rally2), 55pts; etc
Modified 4: 1st George Sherman - USA (Tide Cleaners/Subway/GS InMotion Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 62pts; 2nd Mark Thompson (Automotive Art/Glassesco/NKM Clothing/Bio Beauty Day Spa Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 55pts; 3rd Kyle Catwell (Ellesmere Quarries Ltd/Chicken Pen Racing Audi TT-R), 26pts
SuperModified 2: 1st Roger Mayers (Chefette/Frosteez/Hankook/Sign Depot Toyota WR Starlet), 75pts; 2nd Barry Mayers (Chefette/Frosteez/Hankook/Sign Depot Ford Fiesta), 47pts; 3rd Andrew Jones (Gale’s Agro Products/AP Jones Pharmacy/Southern Surf Beach Apartments/Weetabix/GO ON Energy Ford Escort MkII), 43pts; etc
SM1: 1st Darren Lashley (Hi-Speed Performance Parts/Starboy Performance/Lashley’s Auto Garage Toyota Starlet), 45pts; 2nd Jason Cozier (JMC Contracting Services Inc/PodStore/Lucky Locks/Bajan Pro Ford Escort MkI), 44pts; 3rd Roger Jordan (Lucas Oils Toyota Starlet), 42pts; etc
Modified 3: 1st Ahmed Esuf (Express imports Inc/Prosales/SY Adam & Son/Cosmo Club/Y Esuf Auto Clinic BMW M3), 61pts; 2nd Logan Watson (Cargo BGI/Packaging Center/Enermax/Luxe Caribbean Properties/Stihl/Jack Daniels/Fete Patch/It’s Barbados/Bajan Pure Water/Quality Tyre BMW M3), 55pts; 3rd Suleman Esuf (Prosales/Express Imports Inc/SY Adam & Son/Y Esuf Auto Clinic BMW 1M), 30pts; etc
Modified 2: 1st Neil Corbin (Nassco/Auto Solutions/Stamina Energy/Pressout Performance/Colour XL Toyota GT86 CS-R3), 75pts; 2nd Sean Corbin (Super-S Premium Lubricants/Carter's Pitstop/Kikks Slippas/West Lake Tires/Gunk/Fabblast Barbados/Guava Tech/M&M Racing BMW 318ti), 60pts; 3rd Michael Worme/Jason King (Coast to Coast Cooling/COT/Ullyett’s Machine Shop/Camps Auto Services/Katspraddle Vodka/Nauti Lime/Sign Up BMW 318ti Compact), 30pts; etc
M1: 1st Horatio Brown – JAM (Fast Parts Barbados/Garage 61/Esuf Racing/RAW Power Motorsports/AdON Racing/RichTune Performance Citroen C2R2), 67pts; 2nd Edward Corbin (Automotive Art/Pro Sales/Hilti Daihatsu Charmant), 55pts; 3rd Pierre Clarke (SDRR Hydraulics/Performance Plus/Camps Auto Services Honda Civic), 40pts; etc
Historic 2: 1st John Corbin (Valvoline/Hilti Toyota Corolla), 15pts
Clubman 3: 1st Kevin Armstrong (Armstrong Auto BMW 325i), 45pts; 2nd Karl Bovell (KB Equipment Rental/3R's Trucking/Vizions Land Survey & BLD Construction/Cozigood Enterprises BMW 325), 17pts
C2: 1st Ian Warren (Colour XL/West Lake Tires/Guava Tech/Formula 1/Motor Medic/Benthams Farm & Garden BimmaCup), 70pts; 2nd Derek Edwards (www . coralbeachbarbados . com BimmaCup), 62pts; 3rd Chris Hoad (Subway/Dasani Water/Shell Helix/Colour XL/Guava Tech BimmaCup), 58pts; etc
C2: 1st Kyle Gill (adhoc Industries/The Chicken Stop Mitsubishi Mirage RS Clone), 33pts; 2nd Wayne Tasker (Winston Enterprises/Shalom Management Services/Shalom Solutions/Byrycustomz/J Squared Consultants Opel Corsa B), 28pts; 3rd Jason Tull (Jay-T's Auto Services/BG Products/Black Rock Auto Peugeot 106 Rallye S2), 15pts
GpB: 1st Mark Huggins (General Distributors Daihatsu Charmant), 63pts; 2nd Calvin Briggs (Sirrom Lighting/Flying Bell Farms Ford Sierra), 13pts
BRC 4wd Championship: 1st S Maloney, 62pts; 3rd 2nd Panton - JAM, 58pts; 3rd Skeete, 55pts; 4th Gregg – JAM, 51pts; 5th Roger Hill (FIA R5 Esso/MaxMeyer Paints/MotorMac Skoda Fabia R5), 48pts; 6th Mark Maloney (FIA R5 Rock Hard Cement/M-Jet/Bushy Park Barbados/Sign Station Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 35pts; etc
BRC 2wd Championship: 1st R Mayers, 75pts; 2nd B Mayers, 47pts; 3rd N Corbin, 44pts; 4th Watson, 41pts; 5th Jones, 40pts; 6th E Corbin, 29pts; etc
For media information only. No regulatory value.
For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com [4]
www.rallybarbados.net [5]; www.barbadosrallyclub.com [6]
Facebook/BarbadosRallyClub; instagram/@barbadosrallyclub
