Positive growth in Barbados Rally2 Championship

Seventeen drivers from the Caribbean and further afield have scored points in the 2025 Barbados Rally2 Championship ahead of the mid-season break. As the Barbados Motoring Federation’s (BMF) competition continues to deliver on its plans to expand, the title fight will resume at the Martinique Rallye Tour (July 24-27), the first round to be held in another regional territory.
  After early points leader Stuart Maloney retired following an accident on day three of BCIC RB25 (May 30-June 1), reigning champion Josh Read won that day’s fourth round, but Jamaican Kyle Gregg leads the standings with a run of four second places. Gregg’s fellow-countryman and 2023 Champion Jeff Panton is second, with Britain’s Rob Swann third. Maloney, who won the inaugural title in 2022, is fourth, with Read fifth.
  The championship’s fourth season had already started on a high note – the Shakedown Stages in April attracted 12 entries, the highest yet for the opening round – and the stats were even more impressive for First Citizens King of the Hill (May 25) and BCIC RB25, with FIA R5 the best-subscribed class in a record-breaking entry of 121 for the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event, 20 per cent up on RB24. Including four non-scoring crews from the UK and Ireland, 21 R5 and Rally2 cars started.
  Panton and Read were both adjusting to new cars at KotH, each having recently taken delivery of a Ford Fiesta Rally2. Panton was driving his in anger for the first time, while Read’s Fiesta R5 upgrade had emerged from the Bridgetown Port in time for the BRC Test Event on May 11. With Panton’s return to the ‘Blue Oval’, his Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo was quickly snapped up by Suleman Esuf, who had contested four rounds of the 2022 championship in a Fiesta R5, bringing to 16 the R5/Rally2 cars based in the island.
  Two of those (Fiesta R5s), dormant for a couple of years, also returned, crewed by Canada’s Stan Hartling of the Turks & Caicos Rally Team and Irish co-driver Martin Brady, and Stan’s son Ben, with local co-driver Dwayne Forde; team-mate Paul Horton (Citroen C3 Rally2) again had three-time British Champion Matt Edwards as co-driver.
  Shakedown Stages winner Maloney and Kristian Yearwood (Fabia RS Rally2) won KotH, to add a driver win to Maloney’s previous two co-driver wins alongside Paul Bourne in 2008 & ’10. Gregg and Yearwood’s brother Kreigg finished second in their Fiesta Rally2, with 22-year-old former Caribbean Junior Karting Champion Adam Mallalieu (Fiesta R5) third with seasoned British co-driver Steve McNulty.
  With fastest times on both floodlit Friday night stages at Bushy Park (one more than last year!) on the first day of BCIC RB25, Mallalieu was the overnight leader, but Maloney soon got into his stride on Saturday to build a 15secs lead by the end of the day. With RB25 split into two Rally2 Championship rounds, this gave him his third win of the season, with Gregg second, Panton and Mike Fennell Jnr third.
  The rally had ended for Mallalieu’s father Andrew and co-driver Geoff Goddard (Fiesta R5) with an accident on Saturday morning, then Maloney suffered the same fate on Sunday’s third stage. Both were accidents of major force, but the crews were treated quickly at the scene, then at island medical facilities; all are expected to recover fully.
  Gregg assumed the lead in a way he would not have wished, with Swann and fellow-Brit Tom Woodburn second on Sunday times in their Fabia Rally2 evo, ahead of Panton and Read, as Mark Maloney and son Justin (Fabia Rally2 evo) had retired after his brother’s accident. As Gregg drove to protect his RB25 lead, Read and Mark Jordan pushed ever harder and snatched the Rally2 round four win, with Gregg second (again) and Panton third, as Swann had slipped back.
  Among the standout performances was returnee Esuf who finished sixth, sixth and fifth over the two weekends with co-driver Asif Suleman, while David Husbands (co-driven for RB25 by Joshua Plaza of Trinidad & Tobago) continues to impress in his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 in only his second season of rallying. Martinique’s Willy Nalamoutou-Sancho and Philippe Eguoy (Fabia R5) banked some valuable points on their first experience of Bajan roads ahead of their appearance on home ground in round five.

Barbados Rally2 Championship
Points after round 4:
1st Kyle Gregg – JAM, 92 points; 2nd Jeffrey Panton – JAM, 81pts; 3rd Rob Swann – ENG, 66pts; 4th Stuart Maloney, 65pts; 5th Josh Read, 61pts; 6th Suleman Esuf, 52pts; 7th Adam Mallalieu, 50pts; 8th Roger Hill, 47pts; 9th Mark Maloney, 40pts; 10th David Husbands, 36pts; 11th Paul Horton - TCI, 34pts; 12th Tarik Minott – JAM, 22pts; 13th Ben Hartling - CDN, 21pts; 14th Willy Nallamoutou Sancho - MTQ, 19pts; 15th Stan Hartling - CDN, 18pts; 16th George Sherman - USA, 11pts; 17th Andrew Mallalieu, 10pts
Remaining rounds: Rd 5, Jul 24-27 – Martinique Rallye Tour; Rd 6, Sep 12/13 – MCBI Rally of the Sun & Stars; Rd 7, Oct 26 – BRC Winter Rally

For media information only. No regulatory value.

For further information:
please contact BMF Vice-President – Sport & Barbados Rally2 Championship Manager, David Williams - e-mail: vicepresident@bmf-fia.com
web site: https://bmf-fia.com/