Sport News

Stuart Maloney is the early leader of the 2022 BMF R5 Rally Championship, presented by First Citizens, after claiming maximum points in last month’s first three rounds – all speed events - in his Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo. Next weekend (April 23/24), the multi-discipline title fight continues, as competitors go drag racing on Saturday, then tackle their first rally of the season on Sunday.
 With 60 points from the Motoring Club Barbados Inc’s (MCBI) events in March, Maloney has an advantage of 20 over Jamaica’s Jeff Panton (Ford Fiesta Rally2), who finished third in the Bushy Park Sprint on March 26, then second in both directions of the Spring Blaze Double-Header the following day. Suleman Esuf (Fiesta R5) and Roger Hill (Fabia R5) are tied in third place on 26 points.
 The new championship’s fourth round will be hosted by the Barbados Association of Dragsters & Drifters (BADD) during its Versuz 2 event at Bushy Park, which is scheduled for 2.00pm to 6.00pm next Saturday (April 23). Each driver will have two qualifying runs, the better time deciding his position in the Knockout, which will be seeded fastest against slowest for each round; as the Knockout progresses to arrive at the winner, the semi-final losers will go head-to-head to settle third place, with the remaining positions decided on each driver’s best time.
 On Sunday, the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) will be staging its Shakedown Double Header between Wilson Hill and Malvern in St John, with a scheduled start of 11.30 from Pool Plantation. There will be four runs in each direction, first from Malvern to Wilson Hill, then in the reverse after the lunch break allowing the stage crews to prepare for the change of direction. Although this is speed event, the BMF will be calculating it as a rally for the purposes of the R5 Championship, on cumulative times for the eight runs, rather than on the single fastest stage time in each direction.
 Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF) Vice-President David Williams, who is also the R5 Rally Championship Manager, said: “Most of our drivers will be taking to the Bushy Park drag strip for the first time, so we are looking forward to seeing whether that shakes up the points. Since we launched the championship last month, there has been a real uptick in interest and it looks as though we’ll have some interesting announcements to make in the near future.”

BMF R5 Championship presented by First Citizens
Points after round 3
1st Stuart Maloney (BAR), Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo - 60 points
2nd Jeff Panton (JAM), Ford Fiesta Rally2 - 40pts
= 3rd Suleman Esuf (BAR), Ford Fiesta R5 - 26pts
= 3rd Roger Hill (BAR), Skoda Fabia R5 - 26pts
5th Rob Swann (ENG), Ford Fiesta Rally2 - 24pts
6th Andrew Mallalieu (BAR), Ford Fiesta R5 - 22pts
7th Mark Maloney (BAR), Skoda Fabia R5 - 19pts
8th Paul Horton (TCI), Ford Fiesta R5 - 13pts
9th Stan Hartling (CDN), Ford Fiesta R5 - 8pts

For media information only. No regulatory value.