Just one point separates former Barbados Rally2 champions Stuart Maloney and Josh Read ahead of the season’s most important weekend.
BCIC Rally Barbados 2026, which runs from May 29 to 31, represents rounds three and four of the Barbados Motoring Federation’s (BMF) championship, with a potential 66 points on offer.
Victory in the FIA R5 class in last Sunday’s First Citizens King of the Hill catapulted Maloney, the 2022 champion, into the lead from third place. With 32 points he moves ahead of Read (31) and Jamaican Kyle Gregg, who has dropped to fifth after crashing out on Sunday.
Read, who won the 2024 title, and Mark Jordan beat Gregg by two seconds in this year’s opening round after a close battle in their Ford Fiesta Rally2s at the BRC Shakedown Stages in March. While Read came fourth last Sunday, Gregg crashed on the first run, severely damaging his car in the process.
Tied for fourth in the standings just four points behind Read are Barbadian Adam Mallalieu, who at 22 is the championship’s youngest driver, and two-time Rally2 champion Jeff Panton, arguably the most experienced driver in the field.
Adam Mallalieu and Peredur Davies were within seven-hundredths of winner Maloney on Sunday. (Photo Credit: Bhajan Rally Media)
In only his second full season of rallying, David Husbands is currently sixth with Trinidad & Tobago’s Joshua Plaza on the notes in his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, having moved ahead of Britain’s Rob Swann who contested KotH in his Ford Fiesta WRC, so was not eligible for Rally2 points.
The top 10 is completed by Roger Hill and Graham Gittens, who campaigned their new GR Yaris Rally2 for the first time last Sunday, and the Skodas of father and son Mark and Justin Maloney and America’s George Sherman and T&T co-driver Scott Pinheiro.
Sunday was also notable with this year’s three new recruits to the Rally2 Championship opening their accounts and bringing the number of points-scorers to 14, along with Jamaica’s Tarik Minott (Fiesta Rally2), Mark Thompson (Citroen C3 Rally2), Bryan Gill (Fabia Rally2 evo) and Wayne Archer (Fiesta R5).
BCIC RB26 has a record number of 22 cars in the FIA R5 class, boosted by seven overseas drivers who do not score points, including Aaron McLaughlin (Polo GTI R5) and Conor Wilson (Hyundai i20 R5), who finished first and second in the Northern Ireland Tarmac Championship last year.
(RB)
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