Rally

Jamaica’s Jeff Panton is the new leader of the R5 Rally Championship presented by First Citizens after winning round seven, the Rally of the Sun & Stars on Saturday (September 9). With reigning champion and points-leader Stuart Maloney in action only as co-driver to his brother Mark after his own car had been sold days before the event, Panton turned a seven-point deficit in to a 13-point lead in the Barbados Motoring Federation’s (BMF) flagship national championship with three rounds to go.

The race to win the second season of the R5 Rally Championship, presented by First Citizens, is wide open as competitors from home and away gather in Barbados for Saturday’s (September 9) Rally of the Sun & Stars, the first qualifying round for three months. Running from day into night over 12 stages, the Motoring Club Barbados Inc’s (MCBI) premier event is round seven of 10 in this year’s R5 title chase.

The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) has announced the dates for the 34th edition of its premier event. Subject to final ratification by the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF), Rally Barbados 2024 will run from Friday, May 31 to Sunday, June 2, with The Rally Show and King of the Hill, the final shakedown and seeding event, on May 25 and 26.

Honours were shared in yesterday’s (Sunday) Double-Header Barbados Rally Club (BRC) Summer Sprint as the island’s leading competitors rejoined battle after the summer break. Dane Skeete won the first event running from Drax Hall to Ellesmere in St George, while Jamaica’s Jeff Panton won a very close battle in the reverse direction, with the top five covered by less than seven-tenths of a second.

Sunday’s (August 27) Double-Header Barbados Rally Club Summer Sprint looks set to be a turning point in the BRC Driver’s & Class Championships. There are two points-scoring opportunities on offer – the event counts as rounds five and six – and, with just one round remaining, Sunday’s results will play a major part in the outcome of the chase for the coveted Champion Driver title, also for victory in the 11 contested classes.

Neil Corbin and Roger Mayers are joint leaders of the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Champion Driver title chase after four out of seven rounds. With more than 60 drivers having now scored points in the 2023 Driver’s and Class Championships, there are some new names in the top 10 and some close battles brewing in the classes as the season passes the half-way point.