HILL AND MAYERS LEAD CHAMPION DRIVER TITLE CHASE

Sol RB20 and Flow KotH to play key role in Championship

Roger Hill and Barry Mayers are joint leaders of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Champion Driver title chase following the coronavirus-delayed start to the season at last month’s HammerTime 20, jointly organised with the Motoring Club of Barbados Inc (MCBI). Mayers leads the 2wd Championship too, while there are also joint leaders of the 4wd standings, Britain’s Rob Swann and his arch-rival and close friend Jamaican Jeffrey Panton, who both jetted in for the double-header sprint.

With the Championship cut from seven to six qualifying rounds due to the pandemic, Flow King of the Hill (October 25) and Sol Rally Barbados (October 31/November 1) will this year carry greater weight than before in the Club’s annual Driver’s and Class Championships; of the maximum of 113 points possible from a perfect score of six class wins, almost half – 55 – will come from those two high-pressure weekends.

Driving his new Esso/MaxMeyer Paints/MotorMac Skoda Fabia R5, Hill’s total of 28 points puts him two ahead of Trinidad & Tobago’s David Coelho (Subway Ford Fiesta R5), with whom he shared the FIA R5 class wins two weeks ago. Andrew Mallalieu (Terra Caribbean Fiesta) is a further two points behind in this well-subscribed class, which promises to be one of the highlights of the Club’s premier event.

Mayers also benefitted from competing in a popular class, so collected 28 points for his efforts in the Chefette/Rubis/Hankook/Sign Depot Ford Fiesta, sharing SuperModified 2 class wins with Josh Read (Weetabix Toyota Starlet), who now trails by two points, with Andrew Jones (Herr’s Chips/A P Jones Pharmacy Ford Escort MkII) a further two behind. The same drivers with the same points are also the top three in the 2wd standings.

With Dane Skeete a non-starter due to a fuel leak in the Sol/CO Williams Sand & Lime/Automotive Art Subaru Impreza WRC S12B that could not be rectified in time, Panton and Swann were on their own in the WRC class. Panton (Rubis/KIG/Sandals Barbados Ford Fiesta WRC) won the first event, Swann the second in his Blue Sky Luxury/Elegant Hotels Ford Fiesta WRC, but only scored reduced points for an under-subscribed class. With a fully-subscribed 4wd field, however, each claimed 28 points to jointly lead the 4wd Championship by seven points from Hill, with Coelho fourth on 20.

Some rule changes were included in the 2020 Championship Regulations published in January, which will now apply to this year’s shortened season. Drivers must participate in at least four points-scoring rounds to be eligible for any of the Club’s Championships, but no retroactive adjustments of points will be made as they were last year, should a competitor drop out part-way through the year. Also, new championship entrants will not be permitted after the fourth round. Points will only be awarded when a competitor has completed all stages (and is not OTL) in a rally or 50 per cent of timed runs in a sprint event. ‘Finishing’ a stage is defined as crossing the start line and finish line of the stage according to all regulations, in the process recording an elapsed time.

The major change, however, involves the method to settle a tie between two or more drivers in either the class or overall results: first, the competitor with the highest number of stage wins in his or her respective class, throughout all championship rounds, will be deemed the winner. If the tie is still undecided, then the most overall second places will be counted, and so on until all results have been exhausted. Should the tie still exist after that, then the competitor with the largest overall margin in Sol Rally Barbados over the second-placed competitor in their respective class, shall be deemed the winner.

BRC Class Championship
Positions after round 2:

WRC: equal 1st Jeffrey Panton – JAM (Rubis/KIG/Sandals Barbados Ford Fiesta WRC) & Rob Swann – ENG (Blue Sky Luxury/Elegant Hotels Ford Fiesta WRC), 24 points
FIA R5: 1st Roger Hill (Esso/MaxMeyer Paints/MotorMac Skoda Fabia R5), 28pts; 2nd David Coelho – T&T (Subway Ford Fiesta R5), 26pts; 3rd Andrew Mallalieu (Terra Caribbean Ford Fiesta R5), 24pts; etc
Modified 4: 1st Avinash Chatrani (Lenovo/Gunk/Sign Station/iShop Barbados/Genius Lynk/Axe Solutions Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI), 11pts
SuperModified 2: 1st Barry Mayers (Chefette/Rubis/Hankook/Sign Depot Ford Fiesta), 28pts; 2nd Josh Read (Weetabix Toyota Starlet), 26pts; 3rd Andrew Jones (Herr’s Chips/A P Jones Pharmacy Ford Escort MkII), 24pts; etc
SM1: 1st Neil Corbin (Nassco/Jason Jones/Emtage Electric/Auto Solutions/Valvoline Toyota Starlet), 26pts; 2nd Ryan O Wood (MB Auto City/BizNeeds Racing/Lucas Oil/MC LED Toyota Starlet), 22pts
M3: 1st Ahmed Esuf (Express Imports/SY Adams & Son BMW M3), 22pts
M2: 1st Jamal Brathwaite (Valvoline/Automotive Art/Consumers Guarantee Insurance/Caribbean Auto Glass/TEC Barbados/Stylez Auto Spa/Chicken Pen Racing Honda Civic Type-R), 22pts
M1: 1st Pierre Clarke (SDRR Hydraulics Honda Civic), 11pts
Historic 2: 1st Harold Morley - ENG (Spectrum X Porsche 911RSR), 22pts
Clubman 2: 1st Stuart Garcia (Kirba Inc/Guava Tech/Smith’s Engineering Works BimmaCup), 22pts
Group B: 1st Shawn Eversley (SE Performance/Track Batteries/Big Gasses Suzuki Swift), 22pts

BRC 4wd Championship: equal 1st Panton – JAM & Swann – ENG, 28pts; 3rd Hill, 21pts; 4th Coelho – T&T, 20pts; 5th Mallalieu, 18pts; 5th Suleman Esuf (Express Imports/Y Esuf Auto Clinic/SY Adams & Son/Prosales Ford Fiesta R5), 15pts; 6th Paul Horton - TCI (Java Island Ford Fiesta R5), 13pts; 7th Chatrani, 9pts
BRC 2wd Championship: 1st Mayers, 28pts; 2nd Read, 26pts; 3rd Jones, 24pts; 4th Rhett Watson (SM2 Chefette/Stihl/Gliptone/Gunk/Leafy Organics/Bajan Pure Water/Power King Batteries BMW M3), 20pts; 5th Corbin, 18pts; 6th Adrian Linton (SM2 Ravensden/JAD Performance/Helping Hands Foundation Vauxhall Astra VXR), 16pts; equal 7th A Esuf and Brathwaite, 13pts; 9th Garcia, 9pts; 10th, Morley, 7pts; etc

For media information only. No regulatory value.

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Web site: www.barbadosrallyclub.com