Double-header to settle BMF Rally2 Championship

Nine testing special stages in the north of the island on Sunday (October 26) will settle the Barbados Motoring Federation’s (BMF) 2025 Rally2 Championship in a high-scoring double-header final. Jamaicans Jeff Panton, Kyle Gregg and Britain’s Rob Swann head a healthy multi-national entry list of 10 cars as they fight for the title.

  The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Winter Rally hosts rounds six and seven of the BMF’s first national motor sport competition after the cancellation of last month’s Motoring Club Barbados Inc (MCBI) Rally of the Sun & Stars, the scheduled penultimate round. After dropped scores, 17 points cover the three protagonists and 46 are on offer on Sunday, with the two directions scored as separate rounds.

  Panton, who won the title in 2023, tops the standings for the first time this year in his Ford Fiesta Rally2. With long-term co-driver Mike Fennell Jnr, Panton led the Rally2 Championship crews home in the Martinique Rallye Tour (July 24-27), a new date on the calendar for 2025 and his first Rally2 win since the 2023 Rally of the Sun & Stars in his previous Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo.

  Also in a Fiesta, Gregg has been the model of consistency, second in the first four rounds, but missed Martinique. While Gregg (and local co-driver Kreigg Yearwood) won BCIC Rally Barbados, emulating his father Gary who won in 2006, the event was split for Rally2 Championship points: 2022 Champion Stuart Maloney headed the standings before retiring on Sunday morning, while Josh Read won the Sunday round.

  After finishing third in the Rally2 Championship’s first season – his first in 4wd – Read was not a front-runner in 2023 but bounced back to take the title last year with co-driver Mark Jordan. He missed this year’s opening round while upgrading to the Fiesta Rally2 which Osain Pryce drove to third in last year’s British Rally Championship, but still has a mathematical chance of the title if major dramas were to befall all ahead of him.

  Swann, a regular figure in island rallying for more than 15 years, stands his best chance yet in the Rally2 Championship. Fifth, then sixth in 2022 and 2023 in his former Fabia R5, he finished fourth last year when he bought his current Fabia Rally2 evo. This year, he is third in the standings, nine points behind Gregg, 17 adrift of Panton once dropped scores are taken into account.

  Based on the results of the recent MCBI Run to Winter double-header (October 12), these four will also need to watch for Adam Mallalieu, who joined fellow ‘next generation’ rising star Zane Maloney in a two-pronged attack on the establishment. While Maloney will be out of the island preparing for his second season in the FIA Formula E World Championship, Mallalieu will be aiming to continue his stellar form from the MCBI event, where he finished third in the first run and fourth in the reverse in his Fiesta R5, and ahead of Read in both directions.

  Both Mallalieu and Roger Hill, currently eighth and ninth, look set to climb up the standings at the season finale, as seventh-placed Suleman Esuf will not be competing in the class. After finishing an impressive fifth in BCIC RB25, Esuf sold his Fabia Rally2 evo to Hill replace the Fabia R5 in which he and co-driver Graham Gittens had contested more than 50 island events since 2020.

  The entry is set to be completed by the Citroen C3 Rally2 of Paul Horton of the Turks & Caicos Rally Team, currently sixth in the standings, Bajan David Husbands (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5), Jamaica’s Tarik Minott – hoping to put two recent off-road excursions in his Fiesta Rally2 behind him – and America’s George Sherman (Fabia Rally2 evo).

  Round six of the Rally2 Championship will comprise three runs from French Village to The Rock (2.7kms), the first starting at 10.35am, alternating with two from Pickering to Luke Hill (4.00kms); two reverse runs through each stage are scheduled to start with Luke Hill to Pickering at 2.40pm for round seven.

Barbados Rally2 Championship

Points after round 5:

1st Jeffrey Panton – JAM, 108pts; 2nd Kyle Gregg – JAM, 92 points; 3rd Rob Swann – ENG, 88pts; 4th Stuart Maloney, 65pts; 5th Josh Read, 61pts; equal 6th Suleman Esuf & Paul Horton - TCI, 52pts; 8th Adam Mallalieu, 50pts; 9th Roger Hill, 47pts; 10th Mark Maloney, 40pts; 11th David Husbands, 36pts; 12th, Gregory Buchholzer – MTQ, 24pts; 13th Tarik Minott – JAM, 22pts; 14th Ben Hartling - CDN, 21pts; 15th Rodrigue Theodore – MTQ, 20pts; 16th Willy Nallamoutou Sancho - MTQ, 19pts; 17th Stan Hartling - CDN, 18pts; 18th George Sherman - USA, 11pts; 19th Andrew Mallalieu, 10pts Remaining rounds: Rd 6 & 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/