The Motoring Club Barbados Inc’s Rally of the Sun & Stars is the second-longest event of the season. With stage venues in St George and St John, respectively just over and just under four kilometres each, run three times in each direction from day into night, 48 kilometres would present a tough challenge. The field was somewhat depleted, with Stan and Ben Hartling absent, also Andrew Mallalieu (on FIA F2 Stewarding duty in Monza), while Jeff Panton’s Skoda Fabia has been delayed. Suleman Esuf rejoined the fray, however, in the Fabia driven earlier by Zane Maloney.

Grip was at a premium early on and, despite an off on the opening Windsor to Frenches stage, Mark Maloney (Fabia) topped the times by nearly three seconds from brother Stuart, with Paul Horton third. Mark was slower than Stuart on the first Featherbed Lane to Pool stage but still retained the lead, while Rob Swann was buzzing when he matched Stuart’s stage-winning time; his delight was short-lived, though, as a ruptured fuel line and fire on the next road section meant retirement.

Stuart Maloney now had a lead he would not surrender, despite some issues with the brakes, leading by nearly 10secs at dinner (12m 26.40s). Although still troubled by his Fiesta’s pop-off valve problems of the previous event, Josh Read (12:35.11) was leading an exciting fight for second with Roger Hill (12:35.41) and Mark Maloney (12:35.83), who had lost time with a field excursion on the last stage before the break.

As the event moved into the night, Mark lost more time when the glare from spectators’ headlights caused a momentary loss of vision, while Hill initially moved up to second, despite not being a fan of night rallying. In a close fight, Maloney snatched second place by just half-a-second from Read on the very last stage to finish 28secs behind brother Stuart, with Hill fourth. Horton was fifth, with Esuf, easing into his new mount, sixth.

Round 11 – Rally of the Sun & Stars (Motoring Club Barbados Inc)

St George & St John – September 10

Results

1st Stuart Maloney/Kristian Yearwood (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 26m 42.63s

2nd Mark Maloney/Calem Maloney (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 28.20s

3rd Josh Read/Mark Jordan (Ford Fiesta R5), + 28.70s

4th Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (Skoda Fabia R5), + 35.08s

5th Paul Horton/Matt Edwards (Ford Fiesta R5), + 40.57s

6th Suleman Esuf/Justin Harris (Skoda Fabia R5), + 42.25s

dnf Rob Swann/Sean Gill (Ford Fiesta Rally2)

Championship points

After round 11

1st Stuart Maloney 208

2nd Mark Maloney 142

3rd Roger Hill 138

4th Josh Read 135

5th Rob Swann 131

6th Jeff Panton 89

7th Paul Horton 78

8th Andrew Mallalieu 67

9th Suleman Esuf 36

10th Stan Hartling 31

11th Ben Hartling 13

12th Brian Gill 11