With a record entry of 15 cars in the FIA R5 class, Sol Rally Barbados 2022 promised an epic struggle, given the previous weekend’s podium lockout by R5 cars at First Citizens King of the Hill. While KotH winner FIA F3 racer Zane Maloney and third-placed Frank Bird were among the guest drivers, points leader Stuart Maloney finished second, with Jamaican Jeff Panton, Roger Hill and Mark Maloney completing the top six. Newcomer Josh Read had scored his first points in the R5 Rally Championship presented by First Citizens . . . but no-one was ready for what happened next!
Come Sol RB22, Read won Saturday’s first Pickering stage, but Stuart Maloney then took control, fastest of the championship runners on six of the day’s remaining eight stages, with Read and Mark Maloney winning the other two. At bedtime, Stuart led Zane by 14secs, with Read another half-minute behind . . . but Sunday’s script about a classic three-way scrap for victory was torn up almost before the first page was turned.
On the first southbound run through Kendal, Zane came in to the iconic ‘Duck Pond’ too hot, managing to get through the right-hander, but running wide on the left and knocking his right rear wheel off on a power pole. Before the huge crowds had started to process that, the elder Maloney broke a wheel in the Dark Hole stage. And that left Read with a 20secs advantage over Rob Swann, back in the R5 fold after tackling KotH in his Subaru Impreza WRC, with Roger Hill another 30 or so seconds adrift. And that was how it stayed, Read’s second place overall behind WRC driver Dane Skeete the first time two local drivers had featured on the Sol RB podium since 2011.
While guest driver Bird, who was later excluded for being OTL, was the fastest R5 car on all but one of Sunday’s stages, championship contenders Mark Maloney and Read claimed three stage wins each, with one apiece for Hill, Swann and Andrew Mallalieu, who was fastest at the Bushy Park SuperSpecial which ended the day under floodlights. The thousands of spectators who had been heading for the St Philip facility three or more hours before the action was due to kick off, were treated to one final late-night run – untimed – from island hero Zane Maloney in uncle Stuart’s Fabia; as Zane said on his Facebook page: “A bit of freestyle in my uncle’s car to end a fun weekend? Sign me up!”
There has been a major shake-up of the standings, Jeff Panton dropping from second to sixth after breaking a wheel on Saturday’s second stage and not continuing, while Maloney failing to score means just 30 points now cover the top four.
Round 6 – Sol Rally Barbados 2022 (Barbados Rally Club)
Islandwide – June 4/5
Results
1st Josh Read/Barry Ward (Ford Fiesta R5), 1h 11m 54.41s
2nd Rob Swann/Darren Garrod (Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 36.72
3rd Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (Skoda Fabia R5), + 1:05.86
4th Mark Maloney/Justin Maloney (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 1:23.03
5th Andrew Mallalieu/Geoff Goddard (Ford Fiesta R5), + 1:34.64
6th Paul Horton/Matt Edwards (Ford Fiesta R5), + 2:49.64s
7th Stan Hartling/Jeremy Croney (Ford Fiesta R5), + 5:13.13s
dnf Stuart Maloney/Kristian Yearwood (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo)
dnf Jeff Panton/Michael Fennell Jnr (Ford Fiesta Rally2)
dnf Ben Hartling/Martin Brady (Ford Fiesta R5)
Championship points
After round 7
1st Stuart Maloney 116
2nd Roger Hill 96
3rd Rob Swann 91
4th Mark Maloney 86
5th Josh Read 68
6th Jeff Panton 67
7th Paul Horton 55
8th Andrew Mallalieu 46
9th Suleman Esuf 26
10th Stan Hartling 11
11th Brian Gill 11
12th Ben Hartling 5