Logan Watson on his way to his first Rally2 Championship win in Saturday’s MCBI Rally of the Sun & Stars
Logan Watson claimed his first win in the Barbados Rally2 Championship sponsored by CIBC Caribbean and Ace H & B Hardware on Saturday (September 14). By finishing second overall in the MCBI Rally of the Sun & Stars to Mark Maloney, who is not registered for points, Watson jumps to third in the Barbados Motoring Federation-administered championship with three rounds remaining.
Rally2 points leader Josh Read was Maloney’s closest challenger early on, until a very slow and cautious run through stage 10 to prevent a damaged rear hub from collapsing cost him 34 seconds to Maloney and 28 to Watson. Even so, he has increased his championship lead to 21 points over Jamaican’s Kyle Gregg, who was absent at the weekend, awaiting the return of his Ford Fiesta shell from repairs in the UK.
Watson, in his first year of 4wd rallying, said: I’m really happy with my first win in the Rally2 Championship and second overall for the event. It’s a shame some of the other guys couldn’t make it, but the ones that were there are extremely fast and I’m happy that we are now up there in speed with them. Really looking forward to the next event!”
The 12-stage rally started on Saturday afternoon with the first run from Golden Grove to Padmore Village in St Philip, a new 2.3-kilometre section inside Bushy Park Barbados bringing the total distance to 7.3kms. Co-driven by brother Stuart, the 2022 R5 Champion, Maloney (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) was fastest on SS1, seven-hundredths up on Read (Ford Fiesta R5), eight-tenths faster than Watson’s similar Skoda, an early indication of close competition ahead, although Maloney was not to lose the lead.
In addition to Gregg, championship regulars Rob Swann (competing in his native UK) and Andrew Mallalieu (FIA Steward duties in Baku) were absent, with Roger Hill (Fabia R5) and American George Sherman (Fiesta Rally2) completing the small field.
The second venue was a 4.3kms stage from Pool to Society in St John. Co-driven by the Barry Ward, Watson was fastest on all three runs in the afternoon, clocking his first-ever overall stage wins – “much to my surprise”, said Watson – but lost a couple of seconds to Read on the remaining Golden Grove stages, so trailed him by 4secs at the Dinner Break, Read in turn 5secs behind Maloney. Hill and Graham Gittens were third, another 16secs back, with Sherman and Scott Pinheiro from Trinidad & Tobago fourth.
Read and co-driver Mark Jordan had been troubled by what they thought was a braking issue over the last couple of stages before dinner, as Read explains: “I thought it was just a little bit of brake fade, maybe we needed to bleed the brakes, maybe a master cylinder seal was going bad. So we bled the brakes at the service stop.”
In the evening, the route was reversed, Society to Pool preceding Padmore Village to Golden Grove, with the Bushy Park section now running under floodlights. Although not as bad as the Saturday of BCIC RB24, some rain did make things tricky later in the evening. Lucky to miss the worst of the conditions, Sherman was fastest on the first Padmore, the second Rally2 driver for the day to claim his first overall stage win.
Bleeding the brakes had not cured Read’s problem: “The first stage after dinner wasn’t too bad, but in SS9 I started to feel a vibration and knew something wasn’t right. The back right hub had cracked and the wheel was wobbling and vibrating and knocking off the brakes. It was so bad that there was a risk the hub would completely break off, so we decided to crawl through SS10 just to get to the finish. The guys had built up a new hub, then I was able to have a decent go at the last two stages.”
There was one further twist to the Rally2 tale, when Roger Hill could get no throttle response ahead of the day’s final stage, so failed to make the start. Rally2 Championship rules allow for a driver to be awarded the group’s slowest time plus 20 per cent for a missed stage, however, so Hill still scored points for third, with Sherman fourth.
Watson added: “It was a good rally! I didn’t think I would have the pace of Josh but I knew I wouldn’t be too far off. The rain came down in the last two stages and it was pretty tricky, but I gained a lot of confidence this time around on the wet which I was struggling with in Rally Barbados.”
Barbados Rally2 Championship
Round 6 – Rally of the Sun & Stars (Motoring Club Barbados Inc)
St Philip & St John – September 14
Results
1st Logan Watson/Barry Ward (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 41m 47.32s
2nd Josh Read/Mark Jordan (Ford Fiesta R5), + 05.36s
3rd Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (Skoda Fabia R5), + 1:49.01
4th George Sherman – USA/Scott Pinheiro – T&T (Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 2:52.41
Championship points after round 6
1st Josh Read (Ford Fiesta R5), 117 points
2nd Kyle Gregg – JAM (Ford Fiesta Rally2), 96pts
3rd Logan Watson (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 94pts
4th Roger Hill (Skoda Fabia R5), 90pts
5th Rob Swann – ENG (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 82pts
6th Andrew Mallalieu (Ford Fiesta R5), 64pts
7th George Sherman – USA (Ford Fiesta Rally2), 59pts
8th Adam Mallalieu (Ford Fiesta R5), 41pts
9th Paul Horton – TCI (Citroen C3 Rally2), 28pts
Remaining rounds: Rd 7, Nov 17 – Winter Rally (BRC); Rds 8 & 9, Nov 30/Dec 1 – Special Stage Rally (VRMSC)
Key to organisers: BRC – Barbados Rally Club; MCBI – Motoring Club Barbados Inc; VRMSC – Vaucluse Raceway Motorsports Club