With weather still the main topic of conversation – the first stage was lost to the conditions – the final day of BCIC Rally Barbados, round five of the Barbados Rally2 Championship sponsored by CIBC Caribbean and Ace H & B Hardware moved to the north of the island. Two loops through Dark Hole (5.20km), Lamberts (6.50km) and Four Hills (4.00km) ran in the morning, with the first two venues used again before a return to Bushy Park for one untimed stage and the Rally Finish.

Although RB24 was ongoing, Jamaican Kyle Gregg (Ford Fiesta Rally2) battling Adam Mallalieu (Fiesta R5) for the final overall podium place, the Championship crews started with a clean sheet. Gregg opened his account on the first Lamberts, 1.7secs up on Josh Read (Fiesta R5) with Britain’s Rob Swann (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) another 5secs back.

Read turned the tables in Four Hills, then was also fastest through Dark Hole, topping the entire FIA R5 class and moving to the head of the Championship leader board with a cushion of nearly 2.5secs back to Gregg. When Mallalieu could not continue after running wide in Dark Hole and damaging two wheels, it looked increasingly like a two-horse race for the win, although Swann did win the second Lamberts.

Mallalieu’s demise promoted Roger Hill (Fabia R5) to fourth, now the only driver to have contested all 34 editions of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) premier event since 1990 and on target for a record 25th overall top 20 finish. Andrew Mallalieu (Fiesta R5), Logan Watson (Fabia Rally2 evo) and American George Sherman (Fiesta Rally2) completed the field, all managing gaps and making near-impossible tyre choices.

Read punched in another two stage wins, on Four Hills and the final Dark Hole, now nearly 5secs ahead of Gregg in Rally2 Championship terms, although the Jamaican was ahead in the RB24 order as the event drew to a close. That nearly changed on the last pass through Four Hills: aware that fourth-placed non-championship runner Mark Maloney was closing in, Gregg pulled out all the stops to defend the final RB24 podium place, in doing so setting a time 4secs quicker than Read. That left the Barbadian’s winning margin in Rally2 round five at just 0.88sec, the closest of the season so far.

Swann finished third, 21secs adrift of Gregg and 10 ahead of Hill, while Mallalieu just held Watson at bay for Rally2 Championship fifth, despite the Fabia driver being faster on the day’s final two timed stages. George Sherman finished seventh and the last championship contender to be listed as an overall finisher, gaining the 10 bonus points on offer to each driver.

The final Run through Bushy Park was untimed, so a degree of ‘Free Expression’ came into play, with a diet of donuts and burn-outs keeping the crowd satisfied as the sun slowly faded ahead of the provisional BCIC RB24 podium ceremony. After further repairs, Mallalieu returned to join in the fun, both he and Gregg full of praise for the engineers and mechanics who had repaired their cars. Gregg said: “I feel like I had the best day of my life right in this moment. These guys worked all week and I’m extremely grateful with a Rally Barbados podium and even more grateful for all they have done.” The crew were rewarded with the Spirit of the Rally Award at the Monday Prizegiving.

Reflecting on a challenging weekend, Read said: “I’ve never been on a special stage that was quite so treacherous before, when it comes to the standing water and so on. It is very close between Kyle and myself and it will be interesting to see how the year progresses. I’ll take it one event at a time.”

Barbados Rally2 Championship

Round 5 – BCIC Rally Barbados, day 3 (Barbados Rally Club)

St Lucy, St Peter, St Andrew & St Philip – June 2

Results

1st Josh Read/Mark Jordan (Ford Fiesta R5), 23m 35.04s

2nd Kyle Gregg – JAM/Orry Hunte (Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 00.83s

3rd Rob Swann – ENG/Tom Woodburn – ENG (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 22.36s

4th Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (Skoda Fabia R5), + 35.14s

5th Andrew Mallalieu/Geoff Goddard (Ford Fiesta R5), + 49.13s

6th Logan Watson/Kreigg Yearwood (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 50.81s

7th George Sherman – USA/Scott Pinheiro – T&T (Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 02:59.44s

8th Adam Mallalieu/Steve McNulty – ENG (Ford Fiesta R5), + tbc

dns Paul Horton – TCI/Matt Edwards – WAL (Citroen C3 Rally2)

Championship points after round 5

1st Read, 100 points; 2nd Gregg – JAM, 96pts; 3rd Swann, 82pts; 4th Hill, 75pts; 5th Watson, 74pts; 6th Andrew Mallalieu, 64pts; 7th Sherman – USA, 46pts; 8th Adam Mallalieu, 41pts; 9th Horton – TCI, 28pts