New Zealanders Hayden Paddon and John Kennard won First Citizens King of the Hill (KotH) overall and the FIA R5 class in their Hyundai i20 R5, one of two non-scoring guest crews joining the R5 Rally Championship regulars for the two most important weekends of the season. Ireland’s Ollie O’Donovan drove a second i20 prepared by Andy Scott’s Albatec Racing, but some boost issues early in the day set him back.
Current leaders of both the European Rally Championship and their domestic series, the globe-trotting Kiwis led the R5 class from the first run, their time of 2m 15.05s more than 2secs ahead of their closest challengers Jeff Panton (2:17.41) and Britain’s Rob Swann (2:17.52), his Skoda Fabia R5 repaired following its argument with a power pole at the Shakedown Stages in April. Paddon improved on the second run (2:12.55), as did Jamaica’s Panton (2:13.32), benefitting from some one-on-one tuition in his Fabia Rally2 evo from Brit Chris Ingram, the 2019 European Rally Champion during the week, but pop-off valve issues dropped Swann back.
His place was taken by Panton’s countryman Kyle Gregg (Ford Fiesta Rally2), whose father Gary won in Barbados in 2006; after trailing sixth in class on the first run, he shot up the order (2:14.96), sitting half-a-second behind Panton. Mark Maloney (2:16.16) was now fourth in his Fabia Rally2 evo, Swann (2:16.68) fifth and Paul Horton sixth in his Citroen C3 Rally2, just three-hundredths behind Swann.
While officials dealt with an incident involving a car in the mid-field, there was a long delay before the third run, while the fourth was abandoned, meaning everyone gave it their all for the last run on the 4.2-kilometre course in front of huge crowds. While Paddon found more than 2secs (2:09.53), there were more modest improvements for Panton (2:13.03) and Gregg (2:13.54) to consolidate their places, while reigning R5 Champion Stuart Maloney (Fabia Rally2 evo) was the star of the run: after clipping a kerb on run 1, which required a repair at the end of the stage, a steering failure on run 2 meant he only had one clean run . . . and he made it count (2:13.72), for fourth place, just retaining his championship lead. Roger Hill (Fabia R5) was fifth and Horton sixth, finishing in the overall KotH Top 10 for the first time.
Round 4 – First Citizens King of the Hill (Barbados Rally Club)
St Philip & St John – June 4
Results
1st Hayden Paddon – NZL/John Kennard – NZL (Hyundai i20 R5), 2m 09.53s
2nd Jeffrey Panton – JAM/Michael Fennell Jnr – JAM (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 03.56s
3rd Kyle Gregg – JAM/Orry Hunte (Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 04.01s
4th Stuart Maloney/Kristian Yearwood (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 04.19s
5th Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (Skoda Fabia R5), + 05.91s
6th Paul Horton – TCI/Matt Edwards – WAL (Citroen C3 Rally2), + 06.04s
7th Mark Maloney/Justin Maloney (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 06.63s
8th Rob Swann – ENG/Kreigg Yearwood – (Skoda Fabia R5), 07.15s
9th Josh Read/Mark Jordan (Ford Fiesta R5), + 08.42s
10th Ollie O’Donovan – IRL/Brendon McKenzie (Hyundai i20 R5), + 12.48s
Championship points *
After round 4
1st Stuart Maloney 28
2nd Jeff Panton 27
3rd Roger Hill 24
4th Kyle Gregg 23
5th Mark Maloney 16
6th Paul Horton 15
7th Andrew Mallalieu 7
8th Rob Swann 4
9th Josh Read 3
* rounds 1 & 2 were non-scoring exhibition events