Gregg wins Winter Rally; Corbin Champion-elect

Jamaica’s Kyle Gregg prevailed in a hard-fought three-way battle for last Sunday’s (October 26) BRC Winter Rally, run in blisteringly hot conditions in the north of the island. He defeated early leader Josh Read by just under six seconds, with Dane Skeete third a further 10secs back after a stall dropped him out of contention for the win.

  With victory in SuperModified 1 in the ninth and deciding round of the Barbados Rally Club Driver’s and Class Championships, Edward Corbin is Champion Driver-elect, adding a third crown to those he won in 2019 and 2022. Gregg is provisional 4wd Champion, while Rhett Watson is set to claim a fourth 2wd Championship.

  From the central Service Park at Greenland Agricultural Station in St Andrew, the 43 crews headed first to French Village, where three runs through a 2.7-kilometre stage would alternate with two from Pickering to Luke Hill (4.00kms). With local co-driver Kreigg Yearwood in his Ford Fiesta Rally2, Gregg won the opener, three-tenths ahead of Skeete and Tyler Mayhew (Subaru Impreza WRC S12).

  Read and Mark Jordan (Fiesta Rally2) and British crew Rob Swann and Tom Woodburn (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) were within half a second of Read, who took seven-tenths out of Gregg on SS2 to assume the lead. Skeete was third, Swann fourth and Jamaican Jeff Panton (Fiesta Rally2) now fifth, with local co-driver Jason Cozier.

  Gregg found well over 2secs on the second French Village to retake a lead he was not to lose, but two stage wins for Skeete before lunch cut his advantage to less than half-a-second. Read, Swann and Panton were now joined in the top six by Adam Mallalieu (Fiesta R5), the youngest of the Rally2 field, with British co-driver Max Freeman.

  When Skeete stalled on the first reverse run from Luke Hill, he dropped to fifth, nearly 17secs behind Gregg and with less than 10 competitive kilometres to run. While he hammered in two more stage wins on the reverse French Village and passed first Panton and then Swann, he could make no more progress and finished third.

  Panton passed Swann after SS8 to finish fourth, while a gentle roll on the last Luke Hill removed Mallalieu from the reckoning, fortunately with no injuries to the crew. He had already slipped behind Roger Hill and Graham Gittens, sixth place their best result since switching Fabia R5 for Fabia Rally2 evo following BCIC RB25.

  Top two-wheel-drive seed Barry Mayers was quick off the mark. Seventh and sixth on the first two stages, he then broke a rose joint over the Sailor Gully jump on SS3, lost a lot of time nursing the car through the stage with the left rear wheel pointing the wrong way and dropped behind Watson.

  After separating these two on SS1, Nigel Reece retired his Toyota Starlet with a broken gearbox, then a leaking rear damper which had Watson crossing his fingers ahead of the event finally let go, needing a quick fix to survive the day. Mayers moved ahead again after SS4 to win 2wd and SM2 by just under 8secs. A feisty run from Suleman Esuf in his BMW 1M was rewarded with 10th overall and third in SM2, with Logan Watson fourth on his first outing in his new Ford Escort MkII.

  Although tied for third with Gregg and Watson in the chase for the Champion Driver title ahead of Sunday, Corbin was the only driver in the top five with a zero score to drop. Another class win for his Daihatsu Charmant and co-driver Jonathan Alleyne sealed the deal for Corbin, who had treated the decider as any other event: “I turned up as I usually would, with no mind on the championship. We've endured challenges over the last few events and today that was a ball joint damaged before lunch. We only got back to service with four minutes to spare. We achieved what we wanted to do this year; win in BCIC Rally Barbados, then see how far we can get in the overall championship. Huge thanks to our service crew, especially Peter Hinkson and the quick rebuild after our engine failure in the previous event.”

  Corbin ends the season on 146 points, four more than Kurt Thompson (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) and co-driver Adam Straker, who did all they could on Sunday by winning Modified 4 after both of Thompson’s brothers retired in their identical cars, Mark after an accident in Luke Hill. Neil Corbin and Matthew Staffner (M2 Toyota GT86 CS-R3) end the season third, eight more points adrift.

  Thompson said: “I've had a lot of trouble today so I'm grateful to finish. Being in motor sport for so long it's quite an accomplishment to have been running so high in the championship, but that wasn't really in my mind.”

  As hotly-contested as the overall lead was the battle for Clubman 2 between Antigua’s Stewart Gordon, one of six overseas drivers in for the weekend, and David-Anthony Balgobin. With two-time Champion Chris Hoad out of action, these two traded stage wins all day in their BimmaCups, although Gordon’s early lead was never challenged, the visitor winning by 4.6secs.

  It wasn’t enough to prevent the local driver becoming provisional class champion (the fourth different one in four years) with 114 points, with Gordon second (112pts) and Hoad third (111pts), the closest finish of the season. Gordon said: “To be honest I didn't think about the class championship so much. We've done Rally Barbados for three years and this the first year I did so many other events to just to learn and get some experience. To be in the running for the class championship has been a bonus really.”

BRC Winter Rally - Sunday, October 26

2025 BRC Driver’s & Class Championships, round 9

Results - overall:

1st Kyle Gregg – JAM/Kreigg Yearwood (FIA R5 York Investments/BD Gregg/Elevated Home Decor Ford Fiesta Rally2), 16m 57.14s 2nd Josh Read/Mark Jordan (FIA R5 Servall Inc/Stihl/Fig Products/H & B Hardware/Hankook Batteries/Weetabix Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 05.56s 3rd Dane Skeete/Tyler Mayhew (WRC Automotive Art/C O Williams Sand & Lime/Sol Subaru Impreza WRC S12), + 16.21s 4th Jeffrey Panton – JAM/Jason Cozier (FIA R5 KIG/Ford/Sandals Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 19.97s 5th Rob Swann – ENG/Tom Woodburn - ENG (FIA R5 GO Car Rental/Cygnet Plant/R A Swann Ltd Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 22.00s 6th Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (FIA R5 Esso/Max Meyer/PPG Paints/MotorMac Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 42.09s 7th David Husbands/Joshua Plaza – T&T (FIA R5 Volkswagen Polo GTi R5), + 42.93s 8th Barry Mayers/Leslie Evanson (F) (SM2 Chefette/Frosteez/Kooyman/Sign Depot/Hankook/BSC-Essex Freight Ford Fiesta), + 58.82s 9th Rhett Watson/Andrew Croney (SM2 Chefette/Frosteez/Cargo BGI/Gliptone/Sthil/Hankook/Motul Racing Oils/Bajan Pure Water BMW M3), + 1:06.80 10th Suleman Esuf/Asif Suleman (SM2 Express Motors BMW 1M), + 1:14.68 etc

Class:

WRC: 1st Skeete/Mayhew, 17:13.35

FIA R5: 1st Gregg – JAM/Yearwood; 2nd Read/Jordan; 3rd Swann – ENG/Woodburn – ENG; etc Modified 4: 1st Kurt Thompson/Adam Straker (Glassesco/Realtors Ltd/NKM Clothing/Bio Beauty Day Spa/Sign Depot Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 19:43.99 – 16th overall SuperModified 2: 1st Mayers/Evanson (F), 17:55.96; 2nd R Watson/Croney, + 07.98s; 3rd Esuf/Suleman, + 15.86; etc

SM1: 1st Edward Corbin/Johnathan Alleyne (Automotive Art/Valvoline/Pro-Sales/Hilti/Williams Equipment/Bajan Pure Water/Weetabix/Sunshine Photography Daihatsu Charmant), 19:28.12 – 15th o/a; 2nd Roger Jordan/Che Vaughan (Lucas Oils/Shipsurebb Toyota Starlet), + 43.01; 3rd Antonio Springer/Felicia Springer (F) (Trey Vision/Lamar Mechanical Services/Prestigious Wheels/Prime Garage 246/Tyrone’s Driving School Toyota Starlet), + 4:20.24; etc

M2: 1st Neil Corbin/Matthew Staffner (Nassco/Stamina Energy/ColourXL/Auto Solutions/Pressout Performance/Quality Tyre Plus Toyota GT86 CS-R), 18:51.47 – 13th o/a; 2nd Sean Corbin/Moishe Steinbok (Super S/Carters Pitstop/FOXIN/Bajan Pure Water/First Step Security/Westlake/GuavaTech/Gunk/Fabblast Barbados/M&M Tuning BMW 318ti Compact), + 1:10.79; 3rd Jermin Pope/Pierre Clarke (Glassesco/NKM Clothing/Sign Depot Honda Civic), + 2:09.74 Historic 2: 1st Ian Warren/Robert Warren (Cargo BGI/Warren World Class Lubricants/ColourXL/Caribbean Autoglass/GuavaTech BMW 325), 20:06.68 – 18th o/a Clubman 3: 1st Robert Ryan Wood/Tristan Mapp (Carters Pitstop/Blue Waters/Caribbean LED Lighting/C & A Autobody Repairs/Hilti/Westlake Tyres/Sitemasters Property Management/Perkins & Son BimmaCup Too), 21:08.10 – 24th o/a

C2: 1st Stewart Gordon - ANT/Rene Forde (BimmaCup), 20:29.31 – 21st o/a; 2nd David-Anthony Balgobin/Elijah Marshall (DKK Industrial Supplies/Da-Shem-Rae BimmaCup), + 04.60s; 3rd Callum Kirton/Kai Shepherd (One Fund/RaceBB/Bajan Exotics/BidBB .com/Crown Charters/One Caribbean Estates/King Ocean Services/Ullyett’s Machine Shop BimmaCup), + 1:02.94; etc

C1: 1st Kyle Gill/Gerard Gill (Expressionism/Executive Auto Center/Chicken Stop Mitsubishi Colt), 21:59.20 – 26th o/a; 2nd Shawn Brathwaite/Johnathan King (Homeomart Barbados/B’s Variety & Food Spot Toyota Corolla), + 2:01.27 Open Class: no finishers

For media information only. No regulatory value.

For further media information, robin@bradfax.com

Web site: www.barbadosrallyclub.com

Images courtesy BRC/Image Vault