Hoad leads BRC Championship ahead of BCIC RB24

Chris Hoad leads the chase for the coveted Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Champion Driver crown ahead of the two marquee events of the year, First Citizens King of the Hill (May 26) and BCIC Rally Barbados 2024 (May 31-June 2). With island motor sport in rude health, 48 drivers have already scored points in the BRC Driver’s & Class Championships – a record this early in the season – and nearly 20 more will join in shortly.
  Driving the car in which he won the 2023 Barbados and Caribbean BimmaCup titles, Hoad won the BRC’s Clubman 2 class in both the first two rounds, the Bushy Park RallySprint and BRC Shakedown Stages (April 27/28), for a maximum possible 35 points. Stuart Maloney (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) is second on 33, ahead of Neil Corbin (Toyota GT86 CS-R3 – 30pts) and Stuart Garcia (BMW M3 – 28pts).
  In the RallySprint, organised by the Vaucluse Raceway Motorsports Club (VRMSC), BRC points were based on each driver’s fastest qualifying time, not on the later KnockOuts. This worked well for Hoad, as he lost his semi-final to David-Anthony Balgobin (BimmaCup), who then finished second in class to Hoad the following day to lie equal fifth on 27 points with RallySprint winner Mark Maloney (Fabia Rally2 evo).
  After qualifying, the Maloney brothers topped the FIA R5 times, Mark two-tenths quicker than Stuart, and therefore winner of the first round, then the KnockOuts produced an all-Maloney final, which Mark also won. While Double Champion (2012 & ‘20) Corbin won Modified 2 in both events, the class has been under-subscribed so fewer points are awarded, a factor which also affected Garcia in the Saturday RallySprint.
  Crews can score a maximum of 45 points over KotH and RB24, rounds three to five of the eight-round championship; the winner of KotH earns 15 points on the scale for a Sprint event, while Friday night’s RB24 stages and Saturday’s action make up round four, with 20 points on offer, with the same to be scored Sunday. Visitors do not take points away from locals but everyone is naturally keen to uphold national honour.
  Last year’s Champion Driver Ian Warren came from Clubman 2 like Hoad, and the Rally Club’s most prestigious title rarely goes to those in the WRC or FIA R5 classes fighting for outright victory: only two drivers from the four-wheel-drive classes have won in the past decade, Stuart Maloney (2021) and Jamaica’s Jeff Panton (2017 & ’18). The title is decided on the points scored against your peers in classes based on engine capacity and level of modification – there are 13 classes in BCIC RB24 - and the points earned are reduced if there are fewer than three starters.
  Balgobin, who is joint fifth with Mark Maloney, is among the less established names listed among leading points-scorers so far in a year which has seen a number of newcomers make a start in motorsport or move into rallying from grassroots disciplines such as Autocross. In Group B and SuperModified 1, for instance, both fertile grounds for new talent, Chadane Holder leads the former in a Toyota Starlet, Andre Corbin (Toyota Corolla) the latter, with Seth Edwards (Citroen C2R2 MAX) also in the SM1 mix.
  BCIC RB24 Event Director Neil Barnard says: “The high total of entries for the rally points to the healthy state of local rallying, but it’s also the spread of entries across the classes that indicates to me that there is something to suit every budget. Whether that is the FIA R5 sharp end or our locally developed classes which includes the well subscribed SuperModified 1 & 2, entry level Clubman and BimmaCup and everything in between. Local ingenuity and expertise continue to provide a sound foundation for the stability and growth of the sport.”
  There are also separate Championships for 4wd and 2wd cars. Stuart Maloney leads brother Mark and Jamaica’s Kyle Gregg (Ford Fiesta Rally2) in the former, which is likely to reflect closely the results in the FIA R5 class, while the latter is sure to be very hotly contested this year.
  Following a huge explosion of interest from newcomers and returnees, SuperModified 2 – home to the island’s fastest and most extreme 2wd cars – is the biggest class in BCIC RB24 with 19 entries, 15 of them local. The 2wd Championship is currently being led jointly by Corbin and Garcia, leaders of M2 and M3 respectively, but none of the leading SM2 cars tackled both of the opening rounds last month, so that will certainly change.

BRC Driver’s Championship
Positions after round 2:
1st Chris Hoad (C2 Subway/Dasani Water/Color XL/Shell Lubricants/Guava Tech BimmaCup), 35 points
2nd Stuart Maloney (FIA R5 Rock Hard Cement/M-Jet/Bushy Park Barbados/Sign Station Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), 33pts
3rd Neil Corbin (M2 Nassco Limited/Stamina Energy/Colour XL/Auto Solutions/Pressout Performance/Bajan Vending Toyota GT86 CS-R3), 30pts
4th Stuart Garcia (M3 Time Out Car/Kirba Inc/Four & Twenty Bakery/Guava Tech/Forin BMW Compact), 28pts
equal 5th David-Anthony Balgobin (C2 BimmaCup) & Mark Maloney (FIA R5Rock Hard Cement/M-Jet/Bushy Park Barbados/Sign Station Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 27pts
etc

BRC Class Championship
FIA R5: 1st S Maloney, 33pts; 2nd M Maloney, 27pts; 3rd Kyle Gregg – JAM (York Investments/B D Gregg Ford Fiesta Rally2), 26pts; etc
Modified 4: 1st Kyle Catwell (Valvoline Oils/KFC/Automotive Art/Blue Waters/Stag/Ellesmere Quarries Ltd/BCR Car Rental/Thomas Tours/Chicken Pen Racing Audi TT-R), 26pts; 2nd Kurt Thompson (Glassesco Hardware/Automotive Art/Valvoline/NKM Clothing/Bio-Beauty Day Spa/Realtors Ltd Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), 20pts; 3rd Avinash Chatrani (iShop Barbados/Axe Solutions Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI), 17pts
SuperModified 2: 1st Roger Mayers (Chefette/Frosteez/Kooyman/Hankook/Packaging Center/Sign Depot Toyota WR Starlet), 20pts; Rhett Watson (Chefette/Frosteez/Finlandia Vodka/Stihl/Gliptone/Bajan Pure Water/Motul Oils/Hankook BMW M3), 17pts; 3rd Barry Mayers (Chefette/Frosteez/Kooyman/Hankook/Packaging Center/Sign Depot Ford Fiesta), 15pts; etc
SM1: 1st Andre Corbin (Corbin’s Transport & Taxi Service/Parts Plus/Hi-Speed Performance Parts/Ice-Line Design/Fusionz Boutique/Prestigious Wheels/Empire Auto Solutions Toyota Corolla), 20pts; 2nd Seth Edwards (Citroen C2R2 MAX), 17pts; 3rd Edward Corbin (Automotive Art/Pro-Sales/Hilti/Bearded Hogs BBQ Daihatsu Charmant), 13pts; etc
Modified 3: 1st Garcia, 28pts; 2nd Jonathan Still (Suga Apple Swim/InoGro-Hydroponics/Weddings by Melissa/New York Pizza/Bajan Pure Water/Young Island BMW M3), 20pts; 3rd David Husbands (BMW M3), 15pts
Modified 2: 1st N Corbin, 30pts; 2nd Sean Corbin (Super-S Premium Lubricants/Carters Pitstop/Kikks Slippas/Westlake Tires/First Step Security/Guava Tech/Gunk/Fabblast Barbados/M&M Tuning BMW 318ti Compact), 15pts; 3rd Jermin Pope (Glassesco/NKM Clothing/Sunshine Snacks/Pedialyte Caribbean/SPC Sandblasting Powder Coating/PEG Farms Honda Civic), 11pts
Historic 2: 1st Harold Morley (Spectrum Antimicrobials Inc Porsche 911RS), 26pts
Clubman 3: 1st Kevin Armstrong (Armstrong Auto BMW), 17pts; 2nd Karl Bovell (KB Equipment Rentals BMW 325), 11pts
C2: 1st Hoad, 35pts; 2nd Balgobin, 27pts; 3rd Russell Smith - ENG (Impredicativity LLC/Kirba Inc/Guava Tech BimmaCup), 24pts; etc
C1: 1st Kyle Gill (Adhoc Industries/Chicken Stop Barbados Mitsubishi Mirage RS Clone), 20pts
GpB: 1st Chadane Holder (Carnique Transport Inc/Seven Creative Media/City of Bridgetown Credit Union Toyota Starlet), 20pts; 2nd Shareef Walcott (Melwani’s/Lil Griff Hardware & Building Supplies Toyota Corolla), 11pts

BRC 4wd Championship: 1st S Maloney, 33pts; 2nd M Maloney, 27pts; 3rd Gregg – JAM, 26pts; 4th Josh Read (FIA R5 Automotive Art/Weetabix Ford Fiesta R5), 24pts; equal 5th Jeffrey Panton – JAM (FIA R5 KIG/Sandals Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo) & Rob Swann – ENG (FIA R5 Cygnet Plant Ltd Export and Sales/GO Rent A Car/R A Swann Ltd Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), 23pts; etc
BRC 2wd Championship: equal 1st N Corbin & Garcia, 24pts; 3rd R Mayers, 20pts; 4th R Watson, 17pts; equal 5th Hoad & B Mayers, 15pts; etc

BCIC Rally Barbados (May 31-June 2) is a tarmac rally with around 20 special stages run on the island’s intricate network of public roads, under road closure orders granted by the Ministry of Transport, Works & Water Resources; the previous Sunday’s (May 26) First Citizens King of the Hill sprint, run under a similar arrangement, features four timed runs on a roughly four-kilometre stage, the results of which are used to seed the running order for the main event.

For media information only. No regulatory value.

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