Maloney, Hoad front-runners in BRC Championship

tuart Maloney heads into next month’s final round of the 2024 Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Driver’s and Class Championships leading the Champion Driver title chase. With a near-perfect record of FIA R5 class wins, his total of 118 points gives him a five-point cushion over Clubman 2 (C2) class leader Chris Hoad ahead of the high-scoring BRC Winter Rally on November 17.

The Double-Header BRC Summer Sprint in August caused a major shake-up in the overall top 10. Only Maloney and Hoad held their positions, while Rhett Watson and Kurt Thompson were the big winners, climbing from equal ninth to third and fifth respectively, extending their leads in the SuperModified 2 (SM2) and Modified 4 (M4) classes.

As always, the season finale will benefit from an enhanced scoring system – 28 points for a win compared with 20, then 23 for second place, 20 for third, and so on down to 10 for 10th place – so there is still much to be settled. In addition, there is one dropped score this year, which adds further spice to the final reckoning.

Champion Driver in 2021, when he prevailed over Hoad in a tie-break, Maloney (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) leads the FIA R5 class by 25 points from his brother Mark (Fabia Rally2 evo), who is fourth overall; fifth with 91 points, two behind Maloney, is M4 leader Kurt Thompson (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) in his debut 4wd season. Britain’s Rob Swann has a one-point advantage over Logan Watson and Jamaica’s Jeff Panton as they battle for third in class, each of the trio driving a Fabia Rally2 evo.

The Maloneys are separated by 26 points at the head of 4wd Championship, where points are based on overall finishing positions. Swann and Watson, another in his first season in 4wd, are tied for third, strong results in the Summer Sprint and the absence of some of the opposition moved them up from sixth and seventh.

Hoad’s early run of wins in the 10-strong C2 class in his BimmaCup ended when he finished third behind Ryan Wood and Allan Kinch on the Sunday of BCIC RB24, then Kinch beat him again in the second direction of the Summer Sprint. Even so, he has 113 points, which may prove enough to win the class title, but there will be a fight for the places, Kinch and Jason Downey leading six drivers covered by fewer than 20 points.

After some years in which C2 has been the best-subscribed class, it has now slipped to third behind FIA R5, with 12 points-scorers this season, and top-rated SM2, with 15, in which leader Rhett Watson (BMW M3) has 95 points. He has 20 more than Andrew Jones (Ford Escort MkII), with early leader Barry Mayers (Ford Fiesta) third, another 12 points adrift, these also the top three in the 2wd Championship.

is the last driver with a mathematical chance of challenging Maloney for the championship, but that would take some considerable misfortune for those ahead in the standings.

Two class wins in the Summer Sprint catapulted Jonathan Still (BMW M3) up to sixth overall, but the battle for the M3 class is far from over: Still has 87 points, Stuart Garcia (BMW Compact) 85 – he is ninth overall – and Suleman Esuf (BMW 1M) 82.

There’s a grandstand finish in prospect in M2 as well, Sean Corbin (BMW 318ti Compact) ahead of Neil Corbin (Toyota GT86 CS-R3) by just one point; they are seventh and eighth overall, the Toyota driver having slipped from joint second by missing the Summer Sprint. Completing the top 10 is Edward Corbin (Daihatsu Charmant); the two-time Champion Driver is comfortably ahead in SM1 with 83 points.

Outside the top 10, Kyle Gill (Mitsubishi Mirage RS Clone) has slipped from fourth overall to 13th, having missed the Summer Sprint as well as the opening round; he still leads C1 by six points from Wayne Tasker (Opel Corsa B), however, and while Group B competitors are not eligible for overall position under BRC rules, the 105pts scored by class leader Chadane Holder (Toyota Starlet) would place him third overall.

BRC Driver’s Championship after round 7:

1st Stuart Maloney (FIA R5 Rock Hard Cement/M-Jet/Bushy Park Barbados/Sign Station Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), 118 points

2nd Chris Hoad (C2 Subway/Dasani Water/Color XL/Shell Lubricants/Guava Tech BimmaCup), 113pts

3rd Rhett Watson (SM2 Chefette/Frosteez/Finlandia Vodka/Stihl/Gliptone/Bajan Pure Water/Motul Oils/Hankook BMW M3), 95pts

4th Mark Maloney (FIA R5 Rock Hard Cement/M-Jet/Bushy Park Barbados/Sign Station Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 93pts

5th Kurt Thompson (M4 Glassesco Hardware/Automotive Art/Valvoline/NKM Clothing/Bio-Beauty Day Spa/Realtors Ltd Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 91pts

6th Jonathan Still (M3 Suga Apple Swim/InoGro-Hydroponics/Weddings by Melissa/New York Pizza/Bajan Pure Water/Young Island BMW M3), 87pts

7th Sean Corbin (M2 Super-S Premium Lubricants/Carters Pitstop/Kikks Slippas/Westlake Tires/First Step Security/Guava Tech/Gunk/Fabblast Barbados/M&M Tuning BMW 318ti Compact), 86pts

equal 8th Neil Corbin (M2 Nassco Limited/Stamina Energy/Colour XL/Auto Solutions/Pressout Performance/Bajan Vending Toyota GT86 CS-R3) & Stuart Garcia (M3 Time Out Car/Kirba Inc/Four & Twenty Bakery/Guava Tech/Forin BMW Compact), 85pts

10th Edward Corbin (SM1 Automotive Art/Pro-Sales/Hilti/Bearded Hogs BBQ Daihatsu Charmant), 83pts (PR)