More than 40 cars for Rally Club Autumn Sprint

Dane Skeete is seeded number one for Sunday’s (August 21) Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Autumn Double Header, rounds six and seven of 2022 BRC Driver’s and Class Championships. As road rallying resumes after the lengthy summer break, Skeete’s Subaru Impreza WRC S12 leads an impressive field of 42 cars listed on the running order published today.

All but one of the R5 cars now based in the island are entered, a record outside the weekends of King of the Hill and Rally Barbados. The 10-strong entry includes overseas visitors led by the UK’s Rob Swann and Jamaican Jeff Panton as drivers also continue their hunt for points in the Barbados Motoring Federation-administered R5 Rally Championship presented by First Citizens.

The two-wheel drive (2wd) entry is the strongest seen since the Shakedown Double-Header Sprint in April, with the return of both Barry and Roger Mayers, in Ford Fiesta and Toyota WR Starlet respectively, after their decision not to contest Sol Rally Barbados (Sol RB22), along with Andrew Jones (Ford Escort MkII), who retired early on the first day of the island’s premier event. Placed first, second and fourth in the 2wd standings after two rounds, all three have slipped into the lower half of the top 10 with five rounds run and also now lie behind Adrian Linton (Vauxhall Astra VXR) in SuperModified 2.

Overall championship leader Edward Corbin (Daihatsu Charmant) currently leads the 2wd standings by just two points from Logan Watson (BMW M3), these two also the leaders of the Modified 1 and M3 classes, with Linton and M2 leader Neil Corbin (Toyota GT86 CS-R3) next up; these positions are likely to come under threat with the return of the ‘Big Three’. Other points of interest in the 2wd entry include Rhett Watson, who will be sharing brother Logan’s M3 but electing to run it in SM2, also a rare appearance of Kyle Catwell as a driver, at the wheel of Jamal Brathwaite’s Honda Civic Type-R.

New to island rallying is Jamaica’s Horatio Brown, who will join M1 in one of the Citroen C2 R2s formerly campaigned by the Turks & Caicos Rally Team. Brown, who raced for Trinidad-based Team Fast Parts in the Radical Caribbean Cup in 2019, has been around rallying since the late 90s as a technician, but this is his first opportunity to compete. Fast Parts crew chief Barry Gowandan has prepped the car, but has a clash this weekend, when the car will be looked after by Esuf Racing.

With the Service Park in Hayman’s Factory Yard in St Peter, Scrutineering is scheduled for 9.00am, ahead of a Briefing Meeting at 11.00am. The first event will start at 11.30am, running northbound from the Sailor Gully hairpin to French Village, with the second event in the afternoon over a longer course from Mt Brevitor through French Village to Sailor Gully, finishing where the morning event had started. There will be four runs in each direction and the event is expected to finish no later than 6 p.m. (RB)

BRC Autumn Double Header Sprint – Sunday, August 21

2022 BRC Driver’s & Class Championships, rounds 6 & 7

Final running order at August 19:

1 Dane Skeete (Subaru Impreza WRC S12)

2 Stuart Maloney (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo)

3 Mark Maloney (Skoda Fabia R5)

4 Roger Hill (Skoda Fabia R5)

5 Rob Swann – ENG (Ford Fiesta Rally2)

6 Paul Horton – TCI (Ford Fiesta R5)

7 Josh Read (Ford Fiesta R5)

8 Jeffrey Panton – JAM (Ford Fiesta Rally2)

9 Andrew Mallalieu (Ford Fiesta R5)

10 Stan Hartling – CDN (Ford Fiesta R5)

11 Ben Hartling – CDN (Ford Fiesta R5)

12 Mark Thompson (Lancer Evo IX)

14 Adrian Linton (Vauxhall Astra VXR)

15 Roger Mayers (Toyota WR Starlet)

16 Andrew Jones (Ford Escort MkII)

17 Barry Mayers (Ford Fiesta)

18 Logan Watson (BMW M3)

19 Ahmed Esuf (BMW M3)

20 Suleman Esuf (BMW 1M Coupe)

21 Neil Corbin (Toyota GT86 CS-R3)

22 Kyle Catwell (Honda Civic Type-R)

23 Edward Corbin (Daihatsu Charmant)

24 Jermin Pope (Honda Civic)

25 Pierre Clarke (Honda Civic)

26 Paul Inniss (Honda Civic)

27 Horatio Brown – JAM (Citroen C2R2)

28 Darren Lashley (Toyota Starlet)

29 Roger Jordan (SM1 Toyota Starlet)

30 Harold Morley (Porsche 911RS)

31 Calvin Briggs (GpB Ford Sierra)

32 Stuart Garcia (Bitmaps Too)

33 Kevin Armstrong (BMW 325i)

34 Robert Ryan Wood (BimmaCup)

35 Sean Corbin (BimmaCup)

36 Chris Hoad (BimmaCup)

37 Sacha Soodeen (C2 BimmaCup)

38 Russell Smith – ENG (BimmaCup)

39 Natya Soodeen (F) (BimmaCup)

40 Allan Kinch (BimmaCup)

41 Savio Walcott (BimmaCup)

42 Jason Tull (Peugeot 106 Rallye S2)

43 Rhett Watson (BMW M3)