While newcomers for round six, Ben Hartling and Josh Read, brought the number of registered contenders who have scored points in the R5 Rally Championship presented by First Citizens to 12, it was guest drivers at First Citizens King of the Hill on May 28 who lit the blue touch paper for an epic struggle in the FIA R5 class of Sol Rally Barbados 2022 the following weekend.

FIA Formula 3 racer 18-year-old Zane Maloney nailed the all-important dry third run to become the youngest winner since KotH was created by the Barbados Rally Club (BRC) in 2008 as the final shakedown before Sol RB. He also led the first-ever clean sweep of the KotH podium by cars from the FIA R5 class, heading home his uncle Stuart and Britain’s Frank Bird, whose father Paul won KotH in 2012 & ’14 . . . and all this in his first event with a co-driver, the experienced Kreigg Yearwood.

On a day when weather played a major part in proceedings, Bird (Fiesta Rally2) set the pace on the first of four runs, second overall to regular R5 contender Rob Swann, who had switched back to his Subaru Impreza WRC S12B, with Mark and Stuart Maloney, plus Paul Horton also on the pace. The only fully clear run was the third, when all but 16 of the 82-strong field recorded their best times. Improving by more than 17secs, Maloney leapt to the top of the timesheets, two-tenths quicker than Stuart, with Bird also improving by 3secs to claim third, eight-tenths behind the older Maloney.

With his fifth maximum in six rounds, Stuart has further extended his points lead, with only 2secs covering the next four cars, Jeff Panton, Roger Hill, Mark Maloney and 4wd debutante Josh Read, quickly getting the hang of his ex-Sol Esuf Fiesta. Horton was sixth, while Canadian first-timer Ben Hartling, co-driven by veteran of more than 500 rallies, Ireland’s Martin Brady, beat his father Stan to seventh place.

Round 6 – First Citizens King of the Hill (Barbados Rally Club)

St Thomas – May 28

Results

1st Stuart Maloney/Kristian Yearwood (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 2m 19.83s

2nd Jeff Panton/Jason Cozier (Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 04.35s

3rd Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (Skoda Fabia R5), + 05.86s

4th Mark Maloney/Justin Maloney (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 05.89s

5th Josh Read/Mark Jordan (Ford Fiesta R5), + 06.37s

6th Paul Horton/Matt Edwards (Ford Fiesta R5), + 09.09s

7th Ben Hartling/Martin Brady (Ford Fiesta R5), + 09.70s

8th Stan Hartling/Jeremy Croney (Ford Fiesta R5), + 14.97s

Championship points

After round 6

1st Stuart Maloney 116

2nd Jeff Panton 67

3rd Roger Hill 60

4th Mark Maloney 57

5th Rob Swann 48

6th Paul Horton 36

7th Suleman Esuf 26

8th Andrew Mallalieu 22

= 9th Brian Gill 11

= 9th Stan Hartling 11

11th Josh Read 8

12th Ben Hartling 5