Stuart Maloney victorious in BRC Shakedown Stages

After a day-long battle with winning margins logged in just tenths or hundredths of a second, Stuart Maloney snatched victory in the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Shakedown Stages on Sunday.
Less than 10 seconds covered the top four at the finish, as Jamaica’s Kyle Gregg and Jeff Panton deprived early rally leader, Britain’s Rob Swann, of a podium finish and the leading contenders gained some valuable pointers ahead of BCIC Rally Barbados 2025.

Only 37 of 54 starters completed the eight stages in the north of the island, the attrition starting early. Dane Skeete and Tyler Mayhew (Subaru Impreza WRC S12) were sidelined after the first 3.20-kms Spring Vale with a failed axle; they missed two stages, then clocked top five times for the rest of the day but were out of the overall running.

While most retirements were mechanical, there was an incident on SS2. A driver lost control of his car, resulting in injury to four spectators, who were promptly evaluated by the doctor present on the stage. There were no life-threatening injuries, the most serious being an injury to the leg, while the three other persons suffered minor injuries; two were transported to the QEH, two to Sandy Crest Medical Centre. Rally Club PRO Neil Barnard said: “We wish those injured a speedy recovery and urge all spectators to obey the instructions of the motorsport marshals and spectate where it is safe to do so.”

Swann and co-driver Tom Woodburn (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) were fastest on SS1, but by just 15/100ths from Gregg and Bajan co-driver Orry Hunte in their Ford Fiesta Rally2, with Maloney and Kristian Yearwood (Fabia RS Rally2) a further six-tenths back. The top six was completed by the Fabia Rally2 Evos of Panton and Mike Fennell, Mark Maloney and Justin Maloney, then the older Fabia R5 of Roger Hill and Graham Gittens.

Eventual winner Maloney won the first Rock Hall (3.10kms) and Sailor Gully (2.50kms) to take the lead, but Gregg became the third rally leader, albeit by just 4/100ths, with a stage win on the second Spring Vale, but his lead was short-lived. With the second Rock Hall cancelled following an earlier incident, Maloney won the last Sailor Gully before lunch, now 1.5secs up on Gregg, with Swann fourth, three-tenths behind Panton.

After lunch, Gregg nailed Spring Vale and Rock Hall to retake the lead by just under one second heading into the final Sailor Gully. Admitting to a few errors which allowed Panton to build the gap, Swann stayed fourth. With a time 1.6secs quicker than Gregg on SS9, Stuart Maloney sealed the deal, with brother Mark third for the second time on Sailor Gully to finish fifth ahead of Hill.

After BRC Chairman Neil Corbin presented awards at the Conrad Hunte Cricket Ground in St Andrew, Maloney said: “It was nice to see some different stages which were technical and challenging – hats off to Neil Barnard for throwing something different in the mix. My Skoda has no upgrades, but I’ll try to have some of the new ones before Rally Barbados. The guys are getting close and I need to sharpen the sword.”

Gregg said: “I never wanted to take any risks, but it felt good from the first stage so we pushed on. Orry was good on the notes and we built some speed. We ended up being dominant in Spring Vale and we’ve done some good homework for Rally Barbados getting closer to Stuart. He put down an excellent time in the last stage, and I didn’t get the best launch, but a very encouraging weekend.”

Swann was pleased with lessons learned: “A few set up changes improved the car and it was great to have Woody back. We were with the front runners so happy with that and I’m looking forward to Rally Barbados.”

Behind 2wd winner Rhett Watson, the top 10 was completed by Andrew Mallalieu and Geoff Goddard (Fiesta R5), America’s George Sherman and T&T co-driver Scott Pinheiro (Fabia Rally2 evo) and Paul Horton of the Turks & Caicos Rally Team (Citroen C3 Rally2) with three-time British Rally Champion Matt Edwards on the notes.

David Husbands and Ryan Carrington finished 12th on the debut of their Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, with Kurt Thompson 13th, winning Modified 4 in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX after brother Mark retired his similar car with alternator failure following SS1. Jamaica’s Tarik Minott and UK co-driver Harry Walshaw (Fiesta Rally2) finished 17th, while head gasket failure ended Adam Mallalieu’s day with Steve McNulty in his Fiesta R5.

Reigning 2wd and SuperModified 2 Champion Rhett Watson led the 2wd charge throughout in his BMW M3, finishing seventh overall. He was nudged out of the top 10 times on only three of the day’s stages and never slipped below eighth overall, continuing his run of strong results. Nigel Reece was his most consistent challenger in the ex-Josh Read Toyota Starlet, second fastest 2wd on five stages, finishing 11th overall and second in SM2, 28 seconds adrift and 16 seconds ahead of the Battle of the Escorts.

Just as former MkI Escort driver Reece is still settling into the Starlet, so Suleman Esuf is adapting – quickly! – from BMWs to his new Millington Diamond-engined MkII Escort. A terrific battle raged for third in SM2 between ‘Sol’ and long-term MkII driver Andrew Jones: the day’s biggest margin between the two, 4.1 seconds, came when Esuf beat Jones on the opening stage, but the gap was usually measured in just 10ths or 100ths. The balance shifted Jones’s way when Esuf picked up some penalties, but they were only 5 seconds apart at the finish.

Modified 2 winner Neil Corbin (Toyota GT86 CS-R3) finished 16th overall, while Edward Corbin completed the 2wd top six, 18th overall, winning SM1 in his Daihatsu Charade. A couple of promising class battles petered out early: the BMWs of Clubman 3 newcomer Ryan Wood and Kevin Armstrong were on a par, until Wood retired, Armstrong managing to take the class by 8.9 seconds from Kamal Quimby despite a misfire, then driving the last two stages on a flat tyre. Stuart Garcia and Ahmed Esuf, also in BMWs, were evenly matched until both retired, Esuf with a small fire, leaving no M3 finishers.

While Chris Hoad dominated the BimmaCup battle in Clubman 2, beating Antigua’s Stewart Gordon by 17 seconds, only 13 seconds covered second down to fifth in this hard-fought class. Kyle Gill (Mitsubishi Mirage RS Clone) won C1, with teenager Callum Kirton in a Toyota Starlet Glanza second in class in his first rally, while the closest winning margin of the day apart from the overall, came in the Open Class, where Shareef Walcott (Toyota Corolla) beat 2024 Rookie of the Year Chadane Holder (Starlet) by 8 seconds.

(BRC PR)