With guest driver Matt Edwards dominant from Pickerings to Luke Hill at the Motoring Club Barbados Inc’s Hammertime Double Header Sprint in Paul Horton’s Fiesta, would there be a repeat when the direction was reversed? Indeed, yes . . . more than that, everyone finished in the same positions as earlier, apart from Stan Hartling, who switched places with son Ben to finish ahead of him in ninth, after Hartling Jnr had a massive moment and big impact on a berm in his Fiesta on the second run, which cracked a wheel and shook him up a bit, so he retired for the day.

While the final order was the same, it is worth noting that Roger Hill (Fabia) was the closest challenger to Edwards in the first two runs, just four-tenths off the three-time British Champion on run 2 and ahead of points leader Stuart Maloney for the first time. Edwards’s margin of victory was tighter, a smidge under 1sec, Hill and Read completing a top four covered by just 2.4secs in the reverse direction, compared with 3.8secs earlier.

A further maximum points score confirmed Stuart Maloney as the inaugural Champion of the R5 Rally Championship presented by First Citizens, but there is still all to play for further down the standings. With two third places, Hill moves up to second, four points clear of Mark Maloney, while fourth-placed Read has extended his advantage over Britain’s Rob Swann to 12 points.

And Read, for one, enjoyed the added competition offered by the accomplished visitor: “It was a privilege to have Matt Edwards here as a benchmark for the locals this weekend to show how much more can be achieved. The key to these cars is being smooth and consistent and I tried to work on that to improve my times. It was a good close to the road events for us, definitely ended on a positive.”

Round 13 – Hammertime, Event 2 (Motoring Club Barbados Inc)

Luke Hill to Pickerings, St Lucy – October 15

Results

1st Matt Edwards (Ford Fiesta R5), 2m 14.75s

2nd Stuart Maloney (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 00.99s

3rd Roger Hill (Skoda Fabia R5), + 01.91s

4th Josh Read (Ford Fiesta R5), + 02.36s

5th Mark Maloney (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 03.27s

6th Rob Swann (Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 04.96s

7th Andrew Mallalieu (Ford Fiesta R5), + 06.41s

8th Paul Horton (Ford Fiesta R5), + 07.58s

9th Stan Hartling (Ford Fiesta R5), + 09.10s

10th Ben Hartling (Ford Fiesta R5), + 12.03s

Championship points

After round 13

1st Stuart Maloney 248

2nd Roger Hill 166

3rd Mark Maloney 162

4th Josh Read 159

5th Rob Swann 147

6th Jeff Panton 89

7th Paul Horton 88

8th Andrew Mallalieu 79

= 9th Suleman Esuf 36

= 9th Stan Hartling 36

11th Ben Hartling 18

12th Brian Gill 11