Roger Mayers heads into this month’s final round of the 2023 Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Driver’s and Class Championships leading the Champion Driver title chase, with a 100 per cent record of class wins in SuperModified 2. His total of 105 points gives him a four-point cushion over former two-time Champion Neil Corbin, with Ian Warren just one further point behind.
The BRC Winter Rally on Sunday, October 22, will benefit from the now-traditional enhanced scoring system applied to the season finale – 28 points for a win, 23 for second place, 20 for third and so on down to 10 for 10th place – so there is still much to be settled. There will be nine stages at two venues in the parishes of St John and St Joseph, with the Service Park at Pool: Blackmans to Tappy Pond will run in one direction only, while Society to Cherry Grove will also run in the reverse.
Mayers has enjoyed a rich vein of success this year in his Toyota WR Starlet, already the SM2 Champion-elect, although the places are yet to be resolved: any of Andrew Jones (66pts – Ford Escort MkII), Jonathan Still (61pts – BMW M3) or Barry Mayers (47pts – Ford Fiesta) could still finish second in the class. Corbin also has a 100 per cent win rate in Modified 2 in his Toyota GT86 CS-R3, but the class was not fully subscribed in the Summer Sprint in August, so he lost his position as joint leader of the overall standings with Mayers.
With 100 points, third-placed Warren leads the best-subscribed class, Clubman 2, in which 11 BimmaCup drivers have scored, Warren having been beaten only once, by Derek Edwards on the final day of Sol Rally Barbados. Fourth in the overall standings is Jamaica’s Horatio Brown, leading M1 with 93 points in his Citroen C2R2, a notable achievement in only his first full season of rallying.
Fifth is 2021 Champion Driver Stuart Maloney, his Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo the first four-wheel-drive car in the top 10; having scored 91 points, he is just one ahead of Jamaican Jeff Panton, who was Champion Driver in 2017 & ’18, in a similar car. Three more 4wd cars are seventh to ninth, closely-matched on points: American George Sherman, who leads M4 in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX (84pts), Jamaica’s Kyle Gregg (83pts – Ford Fiesta Rally2) and Mark Thompson (Evo IX), who is tied in ninth place on 81 points with Logan Watson who leads Modified 3 in his BMW M3.
The 4wd Championship is finely-poised, with only six points covering the leading four drivers. Panton has 83, Maloney 82 and Dane Skeete 81, having headed the 4wd standings in four of the six rounds so far in his WRC class Subaru Impreza WRC S12. Another four points behind is Jamaican Kyle Gregg (Fiesta Rally2), with the title wide open, particularly as Maloney has recently sold his car and will not appear in the final.
With 105 points, Mayers has already put the 2wd Championship beyond reach of the opposition, but just 20 points are spread across the next five drivers: second and third are the leaders of Modified 3 and 2, Watson and Corbin with 67 and 63 points respectively, while a little further back are Jones (53pts) and Barry Mayers (47pts).
BRC Class Championship
Positions after round 6:
WRC: 1st Dane Skeete (Automotive Art/CO Williams Sand & Lime/Sol Subaru Impreza WRC S12), 63 points
FIA R5: 1st Stuart Maloney (Rock Hard Cement/VP Fuels/Chevron/Bushy Park Barbados/Sign Station Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 91pts; 2nd Jeff Panton – JAM (KIG/Sandals Resorts/Bushy Park Barbados Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 90pts; 3rd Kyle Gregg – JAM (B D Gregg Ford Fiesta Rally2), 83pts; etc
Modified 4: 1st George Sherman – USA (Tide Cleaners/Subway/GS InMotion Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 84pts; 2nd Mark Thompson (Automotive Art/Glassesco/NKM Clothing/Bio Beauty Day Spa Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 81pts; 3rd Kyle Catwell (Ellesmere Quarries Ltd/Chicken Pen Racing Audi TT-R), 26pts
SuperModified 2: 1st Roger Mayers (Chefette/Frosteez/Hankook/Sign Depot Toyota WR Starlet), 105pts; 2nd Andrew Jones (Gale’s Agro Products/AP Jones Pharmacy/Southern Surf Beach Apartments/Weetabix/GO ON Energy Ford Escort MkII), 66pts; 3rd Jonathan Still (Ino-Gro Hydroponics/Young Island/Suga Apple Swim/New York Pizza/Weddings by Melissa BMW M3), 61pts; etc
SM1: 1st Tremaine Forde-Catwell (Cheese Autoglass Finish/Mipa Professional Coatings/Performance Plus/Rezult Auto/Ingenuity Pro Shop Daihatsu Charmant), 61pts; 2nd Darren Lashley (Hi-Speed Performance Parts/Starboy Performance/Lashley’s Auto Garage Toyota Starlet), 45pts; 3rd Jason Cozier (JMC Contracting Services Inc/PodStore/Lucky Locks/Bajan Pro Ford Escort MkI), 44pts; etc
Modified 3: 1st Logan Watson (Cargo BGI/Packaging Center/Enermax/Luxe Caribbean Properties/Stihl/Jack Daniels/Fete Patch/It’s Barbados/Bajan Pure Water/Quality Tyre BMW M3), 81pts; 2nd Ahmed Esuf (Express imports Inc/Prosales/SY Adam & Son/Cosmo Club/Y Esuf Auto Clinic BMW M3), 61pts; 3rd Suleman Esuf (Prosales/Express Imports Inc/SY Adam & Son/Y Esuf Auto Clinic BMW 1M), 52pts; etc
Modified 2: 1st Neil Corbin (Nassco/Auto Solutions/Stamina Energy/Pressout Performance/Colour XL Toyota GT86 CS-R3), 101pts; 2nd Sean Corbin (Super-S Premium Lubricants/Carter’s Pitstop/Kikks Slippas/West Lake Tires/Gunk/Fabblast Barbados/Guava Tech/M&M Racing BMW 318ti), 60pts; 3rd Michael Worme/Jason King (Coast to Coast Cooling/COT/Ullyett’s Machine Shop/Camps Auto Services/Katspraddle Vodka/Nauti Lime/Sign Up BMW 318ti Compact), 30pts; etc
M1: 1st Horatio Brown – JAM (Fast Parts Barbados/Garage 61/Esuf Racing/RAW Power Motorsports/AdON Racing/RichTune Performance Citroen C2R2), 93pts; 2nd Pierre Clarke (SDRR Hydraulics/Performance Plus/Camps Auto Services Honda Civic), 62pts; 3rd Edward Corbin (Automotive Art/Pro Sales/Hilti Daihatsu Charmant), 55pts; etc
Historic 2: 1st John Corbin (Valvoline/Hilti Toyota Corolla), 13pts
Clubman 3: 1st Kevin Armstrong (Armstrong Auto BMW 325i), 45pts; 2nd Karl Bovell (KB Equipment Rental/3R’s Trucking/Vizions Land Survey & BLD Construction/Cozigood Enterprises BMW 325), 17pts
C2: 1st Ian Warren (Colour XL/West Lake Tires/Guava Tech/Formula 1/Motor Medic/Benthams Farm & Garden BimmaCup), 100pts; 2nd Chris Hoad (Subway/Dasani Water/Shell Helix/Colour XL/Guava Tech BimmaCup), 80pts; 3rd Robert Ryan Wood (Carter’s Pitstop/Power King Batteries/Guava Tech/CA Autobody Repair/West Lake Tires/Hilti Tools/Medical Massage Specialists/Sitemasters Property Management BimmaCup), 66pts; etc
C1: 1st Wayne Tasker (Winston Enterprises/Shalom Management Services/Shalom Solutions/Byrycustomz/J Squared Consultants Opel Corsa B), 52pts; 2nd Jason Tull (Jay-T’s Auto Services/BG Products/Black Rock Auto Peugeot 106 Rallye S2), 39pts; 3rd Kyle Gill (adhoc Industries/The Chicken Stop Mitsubishi Mirage RS Clone), 33pts
GpB: 1st Mark Huggins (General Distributors Daihatsu Charmant), 63pts; 2nd Calvin Briggs (Sirrom Lighting/Flying Bell Farms Ford Sierra), 24pts
BRC 4wd Championship: 1st Panton – JAM, 83pts; 2nd S Maloney, 82pts; 3rd Skeete, 81pts; 4th Gregg – JAM, 77pts; 5th Roger Hill (FIA R5 Esso/MaxMeyer Paints/MotorMac Skoda Fabia R5), 62pts; 6th Mark Maloney (FIA R5 Rock Hard Cement/M-Jet/Bushy Park Barbados/Sign Station Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 53pts; etc
BRC 2wd Championship: 1st R Mayers, 105pts; 2nd Watson, 67pts; 3rd N Corbin, 63pts; 4th Jones, 53pts; 5th Barry Mayers (SM2 Chefette/Frosteez/Hankook/Sign Depot Ford Fiesta), 47pts; 6th S Esuf, 45pts; etc
(PR)