Barbados Motoring Federation

First GR Yaris Rally2 for BMF Championship

The arrival on Tuesday (May 12) of a brand-new GR Yaris Rally2 to be driven in BCIC Rally Barbados (May 29-31) by Roger Hill, boss of island Toyota dealer Nassco, means the Barbados Rally2 Championship will play host to examples of all six volume manufacturer R5 and Rally2 cars for the first time. Hill tested the car today (May 16) at Bushy Park Barbados for the first time.
Along with two Hyundai entries from Ireland, the Yaris will do battle with cars from Citroen, Ford, Skoda and Volkswagen in a record entry of 22 in the FIA R5 class. As Neil Barnard, Event Director of BCIC RB26 said at last Friday’s (May 8) Briefing Meeting: “That is remarkable for an island this size.”
It is 10 years since a Ford Fiesta R5 first reached the Rally Barbados podium, third in RB16 driven by Elfyn Evans, current leader of the World Rally Championship (WRC) and runner-up for five of the last six years. While it took two more years for R5s to appear in the island – Trinidad & Tobago’s David Coelho was the first to campaign one regularly – the category’s growth since then has been dramatic.
In the first four years of the Barbados Motoring Federation (BMF) Championship, 21 drivers from six nations have scored points, drivers from England, Jamaica, the Turks & Caicos Islands and the USA jetting in to compete in cars based in the island. Adding this year’s newcomers, a further 20 overseas drivers will have competed in the island.
After a nearly 1,800-mile journey by truck and ferry across the Gulf of Finland from Toyota Gazoo Racing’s HQ in Jyväskylä, the Yaris was loaded on the Geest Line freighter CS Quality in the Netherlands, before collecting a further 37 rally cars from Portsmouth in the UK; it docked at the Bridgetown Port on Tuesday morning. The only driver to have contested all 35 editions of the island’s premier event, Hill has 26 top 10 finishes to his credit, most of them with Graham Gittens, his co-driver for the past 25 years.
In a Skoda Fabia R5, Hill finished second to Stuart Maloney in the first season in 2022. Now armed with the latest evolution of the Fabia RS Rally2, Maloney has been the man to beat in the class, although last year’s campaign was cut short by a serious accident while leading RB25. Recovery for Maloney and co-driver Kristian Yearwood was slow, but two top five outings in UK events earlier in the year were followed by third place and a stage win in the Shakedown Stages, so the pace is clearly still there.
They were the meat in a Fiesta Rally2 sandwich: in front 2024 Champion Josh Read and Mark Jordan beat RB25 winners Jamaican Kyle Gregg and island co-driver Kreigg Yearwood by just two seconds, while Gregg’s fellow-countrymen Jeff Panton and Mike Fennell Jnr, the 2023 and reigning Champions, inherited fourth after a last-stage excursion dropped former Caribbean Junior Karting Champion Adam Mallalieu and his new Welsh co-driver Peredur Davies to fifth. Jamaica’s Tarik Minott drives a fifth Fiesta with English co-driver Harry Walshaw.
Sixth in the Shakedown Stages, Britain’s Rob Swann has opted to ship his Fiesta WRC in for RB26, so the remaining Skoda crews are Mark and Justin Maloney (Fabia RS Rally2), and the Fabia Rally2 evos of the USA/T&T pairing of George Sherman and Scott Pinheiro, and former BRC Group N Champion Brian Gill, partnered by Damien Johnson.
Bringing variety to the island landscape are the improving David Husbands, co-driven in his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 by T&T’s Joshua Plaza, and Mark Thompson in the ex-Paul Horton Citroen C3 Rally2, currently an unknown quantity as he and Ron Greaves retired on the first stage in March.
While Hyundai is now the only manufacturer not represented in the BMF Championship, there are two i20 R5s among the record number of nine overseas entries in the class: Ireland’s Kevin Wilson and daughter Katie return after finishing 16th in the class on their Rally Barbados debut last year, with son Conor bringing his identical Hyundai. Runner-up in the 2025 Northern Ireland Tarmac Rally Championship, Wilson will have experienced English co-driver Steve McNulty on board, sixth last year with Adam Mallalieu.
Also from Ireland are newcomers Aaron McLaughlin and Darren Curran, who beat Wilson to last year’s domestic title in their Polo GTI R5, and Paschal O’Shea and son Larry, who finished 25th in their Fiesta R5 in RB25. From Ireland via New York come 2020 American Champions Barry McKenna and Leon Jordan, with their car as yet unconfirmed; McKenna made a strong impression two years ago in a Polo.
Most successful of the overseas crews in RB25 was Scotland’s Peter Stewart, 14th overall and 10th in the FIA R5 class in his Citroen; as Harry Marchbank is unable to return, Rachel Matheson steps into the co-driver’s seat after a top 10 finish with Stewart in the Snowman Rally this year. Two Fiesta R5 crews from England visit for the first time – Mick Johnson and Peter Pears, Stephen Pawson and Liam Whiteley – while Darryl Morris and Steve Gully return from Jersey with the ex-Rob Swann Fabia R5.

Positions after round 1: 1st Josh Read, 23 points; 2nd Kyle Gregg – JAM, 20pts; 3rd Stuart Maloney, 17pts; 4th Jeffrey Panton – JAM, 15pts; 5th Adam Mallalieu, 13pts; 6th Rob Swann – ENG, 11pts; etc Barbados Rally2 Championship: Rd 2, May 24 – First Citizens King of the Hill; Rds 3 & 4, May 29-31 – BCIC Rally Barbados 2026; Rd 5, Sep 12 – MCBI Rally of the Sun & Stars; Rd 6, Nov 1 – BRC Winter Rally

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They are here!! IYKYK!!!

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