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Jamaica’s Jeff Panton and Mike Fennell Jnr won round five of the Barbados Rally2 Championship at the Martinique Rallye Tour over the weekend (July 24-27). While he could not match the pace of island hero Simon Jean-Joseph, who claimed the outright victory by 26 seconds in his Porsche 911 GT3, Panton finished second overall for the fourth time since 2017 and held off a strong challenge from local driver Gregory Buchholzer to win the Rally2 class by 14s.

  Victory makes him the fourth winner this year in the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF) Championship, joining early points leader Stuart Maloney, Kyle Gregg and Josh Read, and moves him ahead of Gregg in the championship standings with two rounds remaining. Buchholzer and fellow Frenchman Rodrigue Theodore bring to 19 the number of drivers to have scored in the Championship’s fourth season.

  At the Sunday finish, Panton said: “We had a great fight in the latter part of yesterday and all of today with Gregory in the Citroen. He's a very good driver, both of us were pushing hard and it was good to battle back and forth.” Buchholzer agreed: “It was a really good weekend. Jeffrey - you're the main man! You bring a lot of experience and we push the limits because of you.”

  After Friday night’s untimed three-kilometre Super Special on the oceanfront streets of the capital Fort-de-France, watched by thousands of fans despite heavy rain, crews moved roughly 25kms north to the district of La Trinite. Four stage venues were used: two of 10kms each ran three times on Saturday and Sunday, with two 6km stages run twice each on Saturday night; the total competitive distance was just shy of 150kms.

  With conditions still tricky on Saturday and tyre choice crucial, Panton set the pace in his Ford Fiesta Rally2, winning the first three 10km stages, building a cushion of 9secs to Buchholzer and former WRC Ford and Toyota works co-driver Benjamin Veilla (Citroen C3 Rally2), with Britain’s Rob Swann and Patrick Walsh third, another 5secs back in their Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo. Twice a class-winner in Martinique in 2wd Citroen and Renault, Buchholzer’s switch to the C3 this year had already netted him a win in Guadeloupe and he cut a couple of seconds off Panton’s lead with his first stage win on SS4.

  Panton immediately fought back, fastest on the next two stages. He and Buchholzer both beat Jean-Joseph’s time on SS6, something each would do a couple of times again before the weekend was out. As night fell for the four shorter stages, Buchholzer kept up the pressure, sharing stage wins equally with Panton, but a slight error on the day’s final stage left him 14secs behind at bedtime.

  While the leading pair edged away, Swann also had a battle on his hands, as Theodore and Max Hilderal (Volkswagen Polo GTi R5) beat him on all but one of the night stages to cut his advantage to just 3secs after he opted for wet weather tyres when the surface proved dry. After experiencing some technical issues with their Citroen C3 ahead of the mid-week Shakedown, Paul Horton of the Turks & Caicos Rally Team and first-time co-driving partner Dale Bowen from Wales were fifth.

  Sunday dawned brighter, with a further six 10km stages to run. Buchholzer slashed 5secs off Panton’s lead on the first stage as a fascinating battle kept both crews on their toes. They shared wins equally, both also beating Jean-Joseph’s Porsche again, to end the day split by just 14.17s after nearly 90 minutes of enthralling rallying.

  Now on a set of hard tyres, Swann reasserted himself to finish third, 15s ahead of Theodore, while Horton completed the Rally2 field, seventh overall of the 23 finishers. While still third in the Rally2 standings, Swann is now just four points behind Gregg, while Horton has climbed from 12th to equal sixth with Sol Esuf.

  Swann was pleased with the outcome: “Fantastic rally as always here. Patrick did a great job again only our second rally together and the Skoda ran perfectly with no issues thanks to Brett Judd and the team.”

Martinique Rallye Tour (July 25-27)

Barbados Rally2 Championship, round 5

Results:

1st Jeff Panton - JAM/Mike Fennell Jnr – JAM (Ford Fiesta Rally2), 1h 27m 56.10s 2nd Gregory Buchholzer – FRA/Benjamin Veillas - FRA (Citroen C3 Rally2), + 14.17s 3rd Rob Swann – ENG/Patrick Walsh- WAL (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 1:54.99 4th Rodrigue Theodore – FRA/Max Hilderal – FRA (Volkswagen Polo GTi R5), + 2:23.88 5th Paul Horton – TCI/Dale Bowen – WAL (Citroen C3 Rally2), + 6:32.55

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 – FRA, 24pts; 13th Tarik Minott – JAM, 22pts; 14th Ben Hartling - CDN, 21pts; 15th Rodrigue Theodore – FRA, 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, 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/