Chris Hoad leads the chase for the coveted Barbados Rally Club (BRC) champion driver title ahead of the two marquee events of the year, the First Citizens King of the Hill and BCIC Rally Barbados.
Driving the car in which he won the 2023 Barbados and Caribbean BimmaCup titles, Hoad won the BRC’s Clubman 2 class in both the first two rounds, the Bushy Park RallySprint and BRC Shakedown Stages for a maximum 35 points.
Stuart Maloney (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) is second on 33 points, ahead of Neil Corbin in the Toyota GT86 CS-R3 on 30 points and and Stuart Garcia (BMW M3), who has 28 points.
In the RallySprint, organised by the Vaucluse Raceway Motorsports Club (VRMSC), BRC points were based on each driver’s fastest qualifying time, not on the later knockouts.
This worked well for Hoad, as he lost his semi-final to David-Anthony Balgobin (BimmaCup), who then finished second in class to Hoad the following day to lie equal fifth on 27 points with RallySprint winner Mark Maloney (Fabia Rally2 evo).
While Corbin, a two-time champion in 2012 & 2020, won Modified 2 in both events, the class has been under-subscribed so fewer points are awarded.
Crews can score a maximum of 45 points over KotH and RB24.
Only two drivers from the four-wheel-drive classes have won in the past decade; Stuart Maloney in 2021 and Jamaica’s Jeff Panton (2017 & 2018).
The title is decided on the points scored against your peers in classes based on engine capacity and level of modification – there are 13 classes in BCIC RB24 – and the points earned are reduced if there are fewer than three starters.
According to BCIC RB24 event director Neil Barnard: “The high total of entries for the rally points to the healthy state of local rallying, but it’s also the spread of entries across the classes that indicates to me that there is something to suit every budget. Whether that is the FIA R5 sharp end or our locally developed classes which includes the well subscribed SuperModified 1 & 2, entry level Clubman and BimmaCup and everything in between.
“Local ingenuity and expertise continue to provide a sound foundation for the stability and growth of the sport.”
There are also separate championships for 4wd and 2wd cars. Stuart Maloney leads brother Mark and Jamaica’s Kyle Gregg (Ford Fiesta Rally2) in the former, which is likely to reflect closely the results in the FIA R5 class, while the latter is sure to be very hotly contested this year.
(PR)
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