Tie break needed to settle Rally Club Championship

Sunday 21st November, 2021

Stuart Maloney is the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Champion Driver elect, after winning both directions of yesterday’s (Saturday) Double-Header Sprint at Bushy Park, St Philip in his Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo. With Maloney and Chris Hoad ending the season equal on 73 points, the tie break rules were applied, Maloney getting the nod, while Hoad (BimmaCup) is the provisional Clubman 2 Champion in his Rookie season in the championship.

Shortened to five events from the originally planned eight because of the coronavirus pandemic, Maloney trailled Hoad by two points ahead of yesterday’s finale, but drew level. Both drivers also claimed four wins and one second place, which meant the scorers needed to apply rule 2.4.2, which reads: “In the event of a further tie, the highest number of fastest stage times set in class will decide the outcome.” Taking the individual runs from each of the double-header sprints, Maloney was fastest in the FIA R5 class on more occasions than Hoad topped the C2 runners.

Maloney adds the BRC crown to his circuit racing successes: having won Barbados Karting Association titles in 125 (2005) and 125 Shifter (2008), he was the 2008 Caribbean Motor Racing Champion and won the Radical Caribbean Cup in 2018. A class-winner in the 1990s in the Rally Club’s premier event, he finished 12th overall and top 2wd in Sol Rally Barbados 2020.

Yesterday he said: “The car was good and reliable, which made for an overall good day. It was good having Mark out as the competition with family is great. Still, whoever is competing, it doesn't change things much because there's only one way to go – get out there and drive your best.”

With strict Covid-19 protocols in place, the event was run behind closed doors with no spectators and limited personnel on site. There were four runs in each direction of a roughly three-kilometre course, including stretches of the International Circuit, kart link roads, the Rallycross Bridge, the Quarry, the service road to the north and the Tunnel. Service was in the Pits.

Maloney was fastest on three of the four runs in the first direction, initially with Suleman Esuf (Ford Fiesta R5) his closest challenger before Roger Hill (Fabia R5) moved up to second, then Mark Maloney driving brother Stuart’s earlier Fabia R5. In the reverse direction, the three Fabias remained in the same order, but with Andrew Mallalieu (Fiesta R5) this time enjoying a close battle swapping tenths with Hill, having wrong-footed himself by forgetting to turn on the anti-lag for the earlier runs. The six-strong entry in the FIA R5 class was completed by Turks & Caicos Rally Team representative Paul Horton (Fiesta R5).

Hoad also had a fully-subscribed class, beating Sacha Soodeen by three-tenths of a second in the first direction, with Michael Worme third and last year’s class Champion Jason Downey fourth. Worme won the class by more than 3secs in the reverse direction, but was not registered for points, so the win went to Soodeen, with Hoad claiming points for second.

There was good sport in Modified 2 between outgoing Champion Driver Neil Corbin and Jamal Brathwaite, competing in the same class for the first time since they shared M6 titles nearly a decade ago. On the debut of his Toyota GT86 CS-R3, Corbin was 3secs quicker on the first run in the ‘clockwise’ direction while Brathwaite was adjusting to his Honda Civic Type-R being without a windscreen; he reasserted himself thereafter, beating Corbin to the class win by 2.5secs. Corbin again started faster in the reverse direction, before Brathwaite withdrew leaving him to win, which makes Corbin the provisional 2wd Champion.

Brathwaite said: “I didn't have the perfect start to the day with the bonnet blowing up on the way to the track shattering the windshield; thankfully Caribbean Auto Glass was able to come through to remove it. In the end, it was good fun, until an issue with the shocks took me out for the day.” Of his new car, Corbin said: “It definitely feels different to the Starlet, which was expected, with more weight and better suspension. The plan was to throw it about a bit, which we did, and to see what it does. We did spin a few times, but I figure that's all a part of it and what better place to do it than Bushy Park.”

BRC Double-Header Sprint

Bushy Park - Saturday, November 20

BRC Driver’s & Class Championships, round 4

1st Stuart Maloney (FIA R5 Rock Hard Cement/Bushy Park Barbados/VP Fuels/Chevron/Maloney Racing Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 2m 32.91s

2nd Mark Maloney (FIA R5 Rock Hard Cement/Bushy Park Barbados/VP Fuels/Chevron/Maloney Racing Skoda Fabia R5), + 02.25s

3rd Roger Hill (FIA R5 Esso/MaxMeyer Paints/MotorMac Skoda Fabia R5), + 03.44s

4th Suleman Esuf (FIA R5 SY Adam & Son/Prosales/Express Imports Ford Fiesta R5), + 03.77s

5th Paul Horton - TCI (FIA R5 Java Island/Sky Motorsports/HO2 Construction Ford Fiesta R5), + 05.73s

6th Andrew Mallalieu (FIA R5 Terra Caribbean Ford Fiesta R5), + 06.81s

7th Jamal Brathwaite (M2 Valvoline/Caribbean Auto Glass/Consumers Guarantee Insurance/Stylez Auto Spa/TEC Barbados Honda Civic Type-R), + 13.77s

8th Neil Corbin (M2 Nassco/H Jason Jones/Auto Solutions/Emtage Electric Toyota GT86 CS-R3), + 16.31s

9th Adrian Linton (SM2 Ravensden/Helping Hands Foundation/JAD Performance Vauxhall

Astra VXR), + 19.73s

10th Chris Hoad (C2 Subway/Dasani Water/Guava Tech BimmaCup), + 28.49s

etc

FIA R5: 1st S Maloney; 2nd M Maloney; 3rd Hill; etc

SuperModified 2: 1st Linton, 2m 52.64s

Modified 2: 1st Brathwaite, 2m 46.68s; 2nd Corbin, + 02.54s

Modified 1: 1st Geoffrey Noel (Toyota Corolla), 3m 11.77s – 15th overall

Historic 2: 1st Harold Morley - ENG (Porsche 911), 3m 01.85s – 12th o/a

Clubman 2: 1st Hoad, 2m 59.40s; 2nd Sacha Soodeen (BimmaCup), + 00.29s; 3rd Jason Downey (BimmaCup), + 10.38s

Clubman 1: 1st Jason Tull (Jay-T’s Auto Services/Dominus PHD/Redline Performance Imports/SRG Engineering Peugeot 106 Rallye S2).3m 05.95 - 13th o/a

BRC Driver’s & Class Championships, round 5

1st S Maloney, 2m 30.33s

2nd M Maloney, + 02.94s

3rd Hill, + 04.30s

4th Mallalieu, + 04.62s

5th Esuf, + 05.50s

6th Horton - TCI, + 06.67s

7th Corbin, + 18.49s

8th Brathwaite, + 19.34s

9th Linton, + 23.22s

10th Michael Worme (C2 BimmaCup), + 26.74s

etc