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The 2025 Barbados Rally2 Championship opened its fourth season at the weekend on a high note. Not only was the level of competition consistently high, with margins of just tenths and hundredths of a second separating the contenders, but newcomers boosted the entry list to 12, the highest yet for the opening round.
  Administered and promoted by the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF), the island’s governing body of motor sport, this year’s championship also features an overhauled points system among revisions to its sporting regulations. The arrival of a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 brings to four the manufacturers regularly represented, alongside Citroen, Ford and Skoda.
  Since being launched in 2022 as the BMF’s first national championship, with qualifying rounds organised by more than one of its member clubs, the competition has steadily grown. With the addition this year of the Martinique Rallye Tour (July 24-27), the Championship is inscribed on the National Calendar of the FIA for the first time, following a recent agreement with the French governing body, the FFSA.
  There are now 15 R5 or Rally2 cars based in Barbados, prepared by local engineers in workshops across the island, half of them owned by drivers who fly in from around the region or further afield to compete. Jamaica and the Turks & Caicos Islands have been represented since the start, soon to be joined by Willy Nalamoutou-Sancho of Martinique, while Britain’s Rob Swann and the American George Sherman have just started their fourth and second seasons respectively.
  Swann and fellow Brit Tom Woodburn (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) were fastest on SS1 of Sunday’s (April 6) BRC Shakedown Stages, but by just 15/100ths from Jamaica’s Kyle Gregg and Bajan co-driver Orry Hunte in their Ford Fiesta Rally2, with Stuart Maloney and Kristian Yearwood (Fabia RS Rally2) a further six-tenths back. The top six was completed by the Fabia Rally2 evos of Jamaicans Jeff Panton and Mike Fennell, then Mark and Justin Maloney and the older Fabia R5 of Roger Hill and Graham Gittens.
  Eventual winner Maloney won the first Rock Hall (3.10kms) and Sailor Gully (2.50kms) to take the lead, but Gregg became the third rally leader, albeit by just 4/100ths, with a stage win on the second Spring Vale, but his lead was short-lived. With the second Rock Hall cancelled, Maloney won the last Sailor Gully before lunch, now 1.5secs up on Gregg, with Swann fourth, three-tenths behind Panton.
  After lunch, Gregg nailed Spring Vale and Rock Hall to retake the lead by just under one second heading into the final Sailor Gully. Admitting to a few errors which allowed Panton to build the gap, Swann stayed fourth. With a time 1.6secs quicker than Gregg on SS9, Stuart Maloney sealed the deal, with brother Mark third for the second time on Sailor Gully to finish fifth ahead of Hill.
  Seventh were Andrew Mallalieu and Geoff Goddard (Fiesta R5), who inherited the place when Mallalieu’s son Adam and British co-driver Steve McNulty retired with head gasket failure in their similar car two stages from home. The top 10 was completed by Sherman and T&T co-driver Scott Pinheiro (Fabia Rally2 evo), Paul Horton of the Turks & Caicos Rally Team (Citroen C3 Rally2) with three-time British Rally Champion Matt Edwards on the notes, and local driver David Husbands.
  With only a few outings last year in a BMW M3, Husbands has made a major step up to Rally2 with the first Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 to be based in the island; he and Ryan Carrington completed the event in a creditable 10th. The final finisher was Jamaica’s Tarik Minott and UK co-driver Harry Walshaw, Minott returning to compete in Barbados for the first time since 2009, when he drove the ex-Simpson Motors Suzuki Swift.

Barbados Rally2 Championship, round 1
BRC Shakedown Stages, April 6
Results:
1st Stuart Maloney/Kristian Yearwood (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), 14m 09.88s
2nd Kyle Gregg – JAM/Orry Hunte (Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 00.53s
3rd Jeffrey Panton – JAM/Michael Fennell Jnr – JAM (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 06.64s
4th Rob Swann – ENG/Tom Woodburn - ENG (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 09.51s
5th Mark Maloney/Justin Maloney (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 17.21s
6th Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (Skoda Fabia R5), + 32.32s
7th Andrew Mallalieu/Geoff Goddard (Ford Fiesta R5), + 01:02.90
8th George Sherman - USA/Scott Pinheiro – T&T (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 01:04.43
9th Paul Horton - TCI/Matt Edwards - WAL (Citroen C3 Rally2), + 01:04.66
10th David Husbands/Ryan Carrington (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5), + 1:24.24
11th Tarik Minott – JAM/Harry Walshaw – ENG (Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 1:51.82
DNF: Adam Mallalieu/Steve McNulty (Ford Fiesta R5)

Points after one round: 1st S Maloney, 23 points; 2nd Gregg – JAM, 20pts; 3rd Panton – JAM, 17pts; 4th Swann – ENG, – 15pts; 5th M Maloney, 13pts; 6th Hill, 11pts; 7th Andrew Mallalieu, 9pts; 8th Sherman – USA, 7pts; 9th Horton - T&C, 5pts; 10th Husbands, 3pts; 11th Minott – JAM. 1pt

Remaining rounds: Rd 2, May 25 – First Citizens King of the Hill; Rds 3 & 4, May 30–Jun 1 – BCIC Rally Barbados 2025; 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/