Stuart Maloney and Kristian Yearwood won First Citizens King of the Hill on Sunday
Stuart Maloney and Kristian Yearwood in their Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 won First Citizens King of the Hill (KotH) on Sunday (May 25), the final shakedown before next weekend’s BCIC Rally Barbados (May 30-June 1). While it was their first KotH victory, Roger Mayers and Barry Ward (Toyota WR Starlet) were the top 2wd crew for the fourth consecutive year, extending the driver’s record total of wins to seven.
Already the only competitor to have won Rally Barbados as a driver (last year) and co-driver (with the late Paul Bourne in 2007), Maloney can now claim the same record for KotH, having won twice with Bourne in 2008 and 2010. And it is the second time that KotH has been won by a Maloney/Yearwood pairing, after Stuart’s nephew Zane became the youngest winner in 2022, with Yearwood’s brother Kreigg the co-driver.
A record-breaking entry of 121 cars and the event’s return to St Thomas for a four-kilometre stage from Content to Hangman’s Hill brought island fans out in their thousands. Huge numbers gathered around the iconic ‘Vaucluse 90’, where a large covered stand also housed The Rally Experience, and the 90-degree left-hand turn did not disappoint, BMW drivers Ahmed Esuf and Britain’s Tom Stockdale among those thrilling fans with some flamboyant 360-degree spins.
Maloney (2m 39.20s) set the pace on the first run, 2.16secs ahead of Jamaica’s Kyle Gregg (Ford Fiesta Rally2), with just 3secs covering the next five cars. Britain’s Rob Swann and Maloney’s brother Mark were third and fourth in their Skodas, with four-time KotH winner Jamaica’s Jeff Panton and reigning Rally2 Champion Josh Read sandwiching WRC class-leader Britain’s Kevin Procter (Fiesta S2000T) in their new Fiesta Rally2s.
The top 10 was completed by last year’s winner Dane Skeete (Subaru Impreza WRC S12), an impressive David Husbands, new to the Rally2 Championship this year in his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, and double European Rally Champion Simon Jean-Joseph, whose growling Porsche 911 GT3 Cup was already proving to be a fan favourite.
Despite an error on the second run – he was only ninth fastest – Maloney retained the lead. Panton was now second, but still 1.9secs adrift, with a new WRC class leader third, Procter’s nephew Joe Cunningham (Fiesta WRC), just a tenth off Panton’s time and five-hundredths quicker than Skeete in fourth. Gregg and Swann had slipped to fifth and sixth, while two more of the 21 starters in the FIA R5 class, Adam Mallalieu (Fiesta) and Suleman Esuf (Fabia) were now in the top 10, Husbands having dropped down after clouting the scenery at the Dukes crossroads.
After a poor second run, Gregg clocked 2:37.43 on run three to assume the lead, 1.4secs faster than Maloney’s first-run time, with Skeete also faster, three-tenths adrift in second place and the third different WRC class leader. Panton and Maloney were both within a second of Skeete, with Mallalieu now fifth ahead of Cunningham, while Esuf, who did some grass-cutting on the exit of the 90 on the third run, was replaced in the top 10 by Read, who had executed the same maneouvre on run two.
With cars running in reverse order of seeding, the result came down to the last few of more than 430 runs that had kept the crowd on their feet for more than six hours. The last car to run, Maloney slashed another 2.6secs off his time to end on 2:35.92, beating Skeete (2:36.84), who had also improved, with Gregg third from his run three time. Mallalieu also bettered his time to finish fourth, three-hundredths off Gregg, with the R5 cars of Panton, Mark Maloney, Esuf and Swann filling the next six places. Cunningham slipped to ninth after an overshoot and spin at the Vaucluse Raceway’s southern hairpin, to finish just ahead of Procter, competing for the 18th time.
Winner Maloney said: “I would’ve been annoyed if I pushed and wasn’t on the pace. I made a mistake in run two, three others beat me in run three, so I put my best effort in for run four, still within control, to be King of the Hill.”
Skeete was also happy with the result: “The car ran flawlessly today. We wanted to shake the car down, so we were still tinkering a bit with the setup after we made some component changes. I’ve had the best luck being number 1 on the road before and would’ve preferred to win, but I’m happy with where we are.”
Mindful of last year, when he rolled out of contention on the second run Gregg said: “I’m definitely feeling good with the pace. I didn’t push too much in the last run as we wanted to bring it home. Overall, I’m happy with a top three and a decent position on the road. And we are in a much better shape than we were in this time last year.”
With Jean-Joseph’s Porsche running in the Open Class and therefore not eligible for overall honours, the battle for top 2wd was fought out among the usual suspects. The Rally Club’s reigning 2wd Champion Rhett Watson (BMW M3) was fastest on the first run, six-tenths ahead of Mayers, with Nigel Reece third in his Starlet. Mayers improved by more than 5secs to move ahead on run two, with his brother Barry now second having missed the first run with a fly-by-wire failure in his Fiesta, and Watson third, exactly 1sec covering the three.
Although Roger improved further on run three, it was Barry who now led with a time of 2:45.02, 1.6secs ahead of his brother, with Watson (2:48.42) and Reece (2:28.90) third and fourth. The top three all went faster on their final run, finishing in the same order, but Watson found more time that the rest, Barry finishing four-tenths behind Roger, with Watson now within a second.
While happy with the win, Mayers said: “I had an issue with the car idling before the event so I had to resort to an old setup. I had to take some risks in the last run to make up some time as I didn’t have a real buffer like I’m accustomed to. So we will do some work in the week to get this right for the weekend to come.”
The day’s closest margin of victory came in Modified 3, where Wayne Archer won the battle of the BMWs with Jonathan Still by 16 hundredths of a second, with a fine drive from British newcomer Matt Cusens netting him class third another 1sec behind. Also BMW-mounted, Kevin Armstrong maintained his share of the BRC Championship lead with Stuart Maloney with an all-out final run effort to beat Ryan Wood in Clubman 3 by just 0.86secs.
Kurt Thompson beat brother Mark’s identical Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX to the Modified 4 class win by 1.86secs, splitting the Mayers brothers to finish 15th overall. There were notable performances from Welshman Rupert Lomax (Evo VI), back after a decade, who finished third, and Scottish first-timer Lee Hastings (Impreza) who finished fifth.
While Chris Hoad beat Allan Kinch in C2 by the unusually large margin of 2.29secs, the next six BimmaCup cars were covered by less than 3secs, then Savio Walcott and Luke Cozier recorded identical times, Walcott earning ninth place having set the time first.
Alone in the Group N and Historic 2 classes respectively, Ireland’s Larry Doyle (Evo VII) and Scotsman Robin Hamilton (Escort MkI) collected winner’s trophies, while Doyle’s son Aaron (Honda Civic) finished second in C1; first-time English visitor Dan Gibson (Clan Crusader) beat Ireland’s Mick Smith, back with his Sunbeam Imp, in H1.
While Jean-Joseph claimed Open Class honours and 12th overall, Martin Stockdale and son Tom battled over second place all day in their BMWs, youth eventually prevailing. And there was a great battle for second place in M1 behind local winner Carlos Edwards (Citroen C2R2 MAX) between the Peugeots of Scotland’s Euan Mackay and Richard Stewart, the former less than 1sec ahead at the finish.