Talent-packed entry for First Citizens King of the Hill

Four runs over a demanding new course combining sweeping high-speed sections, crests and a steep, technical climb through tight uphill hairpins will decide which driver from a first-rate field of local, regional and international Champions wins Sunday’s (June 4) First Citizens King of the Hill. More than 80 crews are listed on the running order published today (Thursday) for the final shakedown before Sol Rally Barbados 2023 (June 9-11), the 33rd edition of the Barbados Rally Club’s premier event.

In a return to the south-east corner of the island, the 4.2-kilometre stage for the 15th running of King of the Hill starts at Palmers, at the bottom of Stewarts Hill in St Philip. It heads towards Codrington, taking a sharp left up the steep hill that leads towards Society Plantation, where a right turn carries it to the finish outside Colleton Plantation Yard in St John. There will be four timed runs, starting at mid-day, with the event expected to be finished by 5.00pm, after which there will be a Prizegiving at Bushy Park Barbados, which will be the Service Park for the day.

There are 82 starters in 15 classes, with drivers or co-drivers from 12 nations and a record-equalling 22 female competitors. The results of First Citizens KotH will be used to seed Sol RB23 - drivers who either don’t compete or fail to set a time will be seeded behind the last car in their class unless safety considerations dictate otherwise. The field will run in reverse order of performance, from the less modified cars up to the high-performance state of the art four-wheel-drives, building the excitement through the day.

The final car to run will be the Hyundai i20 R5 of New Zealand’s most successful rally driver Hayden Paddon, who arrives in the island as the current leader of the both the 2023 European and NZ rally championships after a globe-trotting four months. With last year’s KotH winner Zane Maloney racing in the FIA F2 Championship this weekend, Sunday’s second seed is his uncle Stuart (Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), who finished runner-up in KotH last year and went on to win the Barbados Motoring Federation’s (BMF) R5 Rally Championship presented by First Citizens.

Third seed is Dane Skeete, winner of KotH in 2020 and Sol RB19 & 22 in the Subaru Impreza WRC S12 in which his father Roger also won KotH and Rally Barbados each three times. With back-to-back four-time KotH winner Jamaica’s Jeff Panton (Fabia Rally2 evo) and fellow-countryman Kyle Gregg (Ford Fiesta Rally2), Barbadian front-runners Roger Hill (Fabia R5), Josh Read (Fiesta R5) and Mark Maloney (Fabia Rally2 evo) and British visitors Ollie O’Donovan (i20 R5), Rob Swann (Fabia R5) and the WRC class Fiesta 2000Ts of Kevin Procter and Andy Scott, competition will be tight.

And it will be tight in the two-wheel-drive category, too. Four-time KotH winner Roger Mayers (Toyota WR Starlet) and brother Barry (Fiesta), who has won twice, are the only previous winners likely to be at the sharp end of the fight, but Logan Watson (BMW M3) is in determined mood and Andrew Jones (Ford Escort MkII) can never be discounted.

After the inaugural event in 2008 at Turners Hall in St Andrew, KotH moved venues, first to Stewarts Hill, then Sailor Gully in St Peter, before finding a more permanent home on Hangmans Hill in St Thomas, where it ran from 2011 to 2018, apart from 2013, when it moved to Luke Hill in St Lucy. After two years back at Stewarts Hill, then the 2021 event lost to the pandemic, KotH returned to a heavily revised course in St Thomas, ending in the Vaucluse Raceway, where 18-year-old FIA Formula 3 racer Zane Maloney became the youngest-ever winner and the first from the FIA R5 class.

Jamaica's Jeff Panton has won a record four times, back-to-back between 2016, when he tied with Simon Jean-Joseph after a rain-affected final run, and 2019, with Roger Skeete a three-time winner (2009, '11 & '15). Paul Bourne (2008 & '10) and England's Paul Bird (2012 & '14) have each won twice and Dane Skeete (2022) once, while Neil Armstrong has the distinction of being the only driver to have won overall (2013) and also been Top 2wd (2011). Roger Mayers claimed his fifth 2wd win last year, while his brother Barry, Armstrong, Josh Read and Ian Warren have won twice each, with single victories claimed by Sean Gill and Rhett Watson.

Sol Rally Barbados (June 9-11) is a tarmac rally, with 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; First Citizens King of the Hill (June 4) runs under a similar arrangement and features four timed runs on a four-kilometre stage, the results of which are used to seed the running order for Sol RB23.

FIRST CITIZENS KING OF THE HILL

Provisional running order at June 1

Key to nationalities (competitor from Barbados unless shown): ANT – Antigua & Barbuda; CDN – Canada; ENG – England; GUY – Guyana; IRL – Republic of Ireland; JAM – Jamaica; NZL – New Zealand; SCO – Scotland; T&T – Trinidad & Tobago; TCI – Turks & Caicos; USA – United States of America; WAL – Wales

1 Kyle Gill/Rashid Phillips (C1 adhoc Industries/The Chicken Stop Mitsubishi Mirage RS Clone)

2 Fabien Clarke/Arlington Hoyte (SM1 Empire Building & Construction/Shallom Management Services/Bovell Auto Repair/RCR Tours/South 7 DJs Suzuki Ignis Sport)

3 Cheryl Spencer (F) - ENG/Barry Spencer - ENG (M2 Dover Beach Hotel/Marco Polo Bar & Grill/Sunflower Stables/Sunflower Farms/Stoutes Car Rental/Animal Flower Cave/SRG Engineering/Jetski Barbados/Le Shack/wrap'd N Tintd Vauxhall Astra GSi)

4 Mark Huggins/Stephen Bell (GpB General Distributors Daihatsu Charmant)

5 Wayne Tasker/Keenan Barker (C1 Winston Enterprises/Shalom Management Services/Shalom Solutions/Byrycustomz/J Squared Consultants Opel Corsa B)

6 John Corbin/Paul Bourne (H2 Valvoline/Hilti Toyota Corolla)

7 Kevin Wiggins/Kareem Gaskin (SM1 Johnson Auto/Eastside Seafood/Zak Auto Parts Toyota Starlet)

8 Jason Tell/Omar Archer (C1 Jay-T's Auto Services/BG Products/Black Rock Auto Peugeot 106 Rallye S2)

9 Mick Smith – IRL/Cameron Barclay - ENG (H1 Sunbeam Imp)

10 Shon Cummins/Craig Murray (GpB BMW 316)

11 Ryan O Wood/Shaquille Mayers (SM1 MB Auto City/BizNeedz Racing/Lucas Oil/Shonny’s Kitchen Toyota Starlet)

12 Ross Callender/Damien Castillo-Marshall (SM1 Empire Building & Construction /Indulge with Anna/Express Imports/Percy King's Auto Parts/HEL Performance/Lil Fabian’s Enterprise/Cheese Auto Glass Finish/RA Mapps/The Tavern Pub/Rent N Run Car Rentals Toyota Starlet)

14 Paul Inniss/Jamar Haynes (M1 Caribbean LED Lighting/Trident Insurance/Huntes Auo Spares/Essco/JJ Racing Team/J’s AC Services/Deodat Customz/Caribbean Villa Chefs/Camps Auto Services Honda Civic)

15 Randy Reid/Romario Reid (SM1 3R’s Trucking/#livealittle Honda Civic)

16 Stuart Deeley - ENG/Andy Doano – ENG (M4 Sandstone Brewery Toyota Celica GT4)

17 Harold Morley/Mutamuliza Cutting (F) (H2 Spectrum Antimicrobials Inc Porsche 911RS)

18 Roger Jordan/Ian Griffith (SM1 Lucas Oils Toyota Starlet)

19 David-Anthony Balgobin/Allister Nurse (C2 DKK Industrial Supplies/Da-Shem-Rhe Inc BimmaCup)

20 Russell Smith - ENG/Rashid Smith (C2 Impredicativity LLC/ Dark Horse Racing/Kirba Inc/Guava Tech BimmaCup)

21 Darren Lashley/Jason Harewood (SM1 Hi-Speed Performance Parts/Starboy Performance/Lashley’s Auto Garage Toyota Starlet)

22 Natya Soodeen (F)/Sameisha Williams (F) (C2 BimmaCup)

23 Dick Mauger – ENG/Liz Jordan (F) - ENG (SM2 Major Farm Services Ford Escort MkII)

24 Graham Haigh – ENG/Jonathan Haynes - ENG (SM2 G Haigh & Sons/Tanfield Engineering Services/J D Haynes Car Sales Ford Escort MkII)

25 Savio Walcott/Toure Nurse (C2 Movements Plus/Locknox/CIF Express/Guava Tech/Worthing Secured Services BimmaCup)

26 Nick Morley - ENG/Josh Plaza – T&T (C2 Liqd Finance/Hydrol Medi BimmaCup)

27 Karl Bovell/Che Vaughan (C3 KB Equipment Rental/3R's Trucking/Vizions Land Survey & BLD Construction/Cozigood Enterprises BMW 325)

28 Stewart Gordon - ANT/Rene Forde (C2 BimmaCup)

29 Spencer Hutchinson/Gayle Hutchinson (F) (C2 Perkins & Sons Barbados Rum BimmaCup)

30 Pierre Clarke/Ezra Gibbs (M1 SDRR Hydraulics/Performance Plus/Camps Auto Services Honda Civic)

31 Horatio Brown – JAM/Leslie Evanson (F) (M1 Fast Parts Barbados/Garage 61/Esuf Racing/RAW Power Motorsports/AdON Racing/RichTune Performance Citroen C2R2)

32 Luke Cozier/Ben da Silva (C2 Perkins & Sons Barbados Rum BimmaCup)

33 Dwane Jackman/Michaela Jackman (F) (M2 Voyager Car Rental/Island Gold Realty/Undercover Cover/SDRR Motor Sport/JVM Signage/KFC Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk2)

34 Wayne Archer/Moishe Steinbok (C2 Arrow Construction/Arrow Woodworking/Archers Hall Design Centre BimmaCup)

35 Jason Cozier/Brian Gibson (SM1 JMC Contracting Services Inc Ford Escort MkI)

36 Chris Shooter - ENG/Bev LeGood (F) – ENG (H2 Sparrow Hill Cars/Soar Bridge Inn Ford Escort MkII)

37 Calvin Briggs/Fabian Morris (GpB Sirrom Lighting/Flying Bell Farms Ford Sierra)

38 Kevin Armstrong/Dwayne Forde (C3 Armstrong Auto BMW 325i)

39 Derek Edwards/Damien Johnson (C2 www . coralbeachbarbados . com BimmaCup)

40 Robert Ryan Wood/Miranda Ho (F) – T&T (C2 Carter’s Pitstop/Power King Batteries/Guava Tech/CA Autobody Repair/West Lake Tires/Hilti Tools/Medical Massage Specialists/Sitemasters Property Management BimmaCup)

41 Andrew Costin-Hurley - ENG/Rob Brook - ENG (GpB Clubman Motorsport/Earl’s Performance Hoses Ford Puma Cosworth)

42 Ahmed Esuf/Bibi Suleman (F) (M3 Express imports Inc/Prosales/SY Adam & Son/Cosmo Club/Y Esuf Auto Clinic BMW M3)

43 Nigel Worswick – ENG/Sophie Louise Buckland (F) - ENG (SM2 Worswick Engineering/Ullyetts Machine Shop Ford Escort MkII)

44 Greg Cozier/Natasha Farnum (F) (C3 Perkins & Sons Barbados Rum BimmaCup Too)

45 Ian Barclay – SCO/Sue Plater – ENG (F) (M4 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI)

46 Jermin Pope/Aaron Kirton (M1 Glassesco/PEG Farms/Titan Gloves/Pedialyte Sport/Ultragrime Wipes/SPC 2023 Sandblasting and Powder Coating/NKM/Bio Beauty/Industries Job Honda Civic)

47 Chris Hoad/Castara Waterman (F) (C2 Subway/Dasani Water/Shell Helix/Colour XL/Guava Tech BimmaCup)

48 Michael Worme/Jason King (M2 Coast to Coast Cooling/COT/Ullyett’s Machine Shop/Camps Auto Services/Katspraddle Vodka/Nauti Lime/Sign Up BMW 318ti Compact)

49 Tremaine Forde-Catwell/Shane Haynes (SM1 Cheese Autoglass Finish/Mipa Professional Coatings/Performance Plus/Rezult Auto/Ingenuity Pro Shop Daihatsu Charmant)

50 Sean Corbin/Emily Kinch (F) (M2 Super-S Premium Lubricants/Carter's Pitstop/Kikks Slippas/West Lake Tires/Gunk/Fabblast Barbados/Guava Tech/M&M Racing BMW 318ti Compact)

51 Ian Warren/Robert Warren (C2 West Lake Tires/Guava Tech/Benthams Farm and Garden/Formula 1/Motor Medic BimmaCup)

52 George Sherman - USA/Scott Pinheiro – T&T (M4 Tide Cleaners/Subway/GS InMotion Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)

53 Mark Kinch/Andrew Peirce (SM2 BMW Compact)

54 Martin Stockdale – ENG/James Hutchinson (GpB Divi Southwinds Beach Resort/Drive-a-Matic Car Rentals/Canems Engine Management/Astleyfab Erection Specialists BMW 1M Coupe)

55 Jonathan Still/Heath Hazell (SM2 Silver Technetium Group/Ino-Gro Hydroponics/Suga Apple Swim/Bajan Pure Water/Quality Tyre BMW M3)

56 Justin Campbell/Ayrton Bannister (M3 Republic Bank/Automotive Art/Camps Auto Services/Expressionism/Dream Freighting/New York Pizza/Premier Diamonds/COT/AEC/HEL Performance/#livealittle/#RAY BMW M3)

57 Fraser Louden – SCO/Ashleigh Will (F) - SCO (WRC Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Proto)

58 Chris Ullyett/Chantal Ullyett (F) - CDN (M2 Proj-Rx Inc/RadComm Systems/Ullyett's Machine Shop Service Ford Escort RS2000)

59 Suleman Esuf/Justin Harris (M3 Prosales/Express Imports Inc/SY Adam & Son/Y Esuf Auto Clinic BMW M3)

60 Jamal Brathwaite/Tammy Nelson (F) (M2 Wolf Lubricants/A&A Autoparts/Consumers Guarantee Insurance/CA Autobody Repairs/Caribbean Auto Glass/TEC Barbados Honda Civic Type-R)

61 Sammy Cumberbatch/Andre Jordan (M3 SC Auto Mechanics/Hilti/Trini Doubles BMW M3)

62 Kyle Catwell/Kayleigh Catwell (F) (M4 Ellesmere Quarries Ltd/Chicken Pen Racing Audi TT-R)

63 Kurt Thompson/Adam Straker (SM2 Automotive Art/Glassesco/NKM Clothing/Bio Beauty Day Spa Honda Civic)

64 Neil Corbin/Matthew Staffner (M2 Nassco/Auto Solutions/Stamina Energy/Pressout Performance Toyota GT86 CS-R3)

65 Edward Corbin/Johnathan Alleyne (M1 Automotive Art/Pro Sales/Hilti Daihatsu Charmant)

66 Logan Watson/Andrew Croney (M3 Cargo BGI/Packaging Center/Enermax/Luxe Caribbean Properties/Stihl/Jack Daniels/Fete Patch/It’s Barbados/Bajan Pure Water/Quality Tyre BMW M3)

67 Andrew Jones/Lindsey Pilkington (F) – ENG (SM2 Gale’s Agro Products/AP Jones Pharmacy/Southern Surf Beach Apartments/Weetabix/GO ON Energy Ford Escort MkII)

68 Barry Mayers/Ben Norris (SM2 Chefette/Frosteez/Hankook/Sign Depot Ford Fiesta)

69 Roger Mayers/Barry Ward (SM2 Chefette/Frosteez/Hankook/Sign Depot Toyota WR Starlet)

70 Paul Horton - TCI/Matt Edwards - WAL (FIA R5 Java Island/HO2 Construction/Sky Motorsports Citroen C3 Rally2)

71 Mark Thompson/Kurt Seabra - GUY (M4 Automotive Art/Glassesco/NKM Clothing/Bio Beauty Day Spa Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX)

72 Kyle Gregg – JAM/Orry Hunte (FIA R5 B D Gregg Ford Fiesta Rally2)

73 Rob Swann – ENG/Kreigg Yearwood (FIA R5 GO Rent A Car/R A Swann/Cygnet Plant Sales Skoda Fabia R5)

74 Andy Scott - SCO/Laura Connell (F) - SCO (WRC Rock Oil/Billfisher III/Rostrum Sportswear Ford Fiesta S2000T)

75 Ollie O’Donovan – IRL/Jack Morton - ENG (FIA R5 Shannon Group Hyundai i20 R5)

76 Kevin Procter – ENG/Patrick Walsh - WAL (WRC Procters Coaches & Bus Sales/Swift Signs & Shirts/Temsa Sales UK Ford Fiesta S2000T)

77 Mark Maloney/Justin Maloney (FIA R5 Rock Hard Cement/M-Jet/Bushy Park Barbados/Sign Station Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo)

78 Josh Read/Mark Jordan (FIA R5 Automotive Art/Java Island/Weetabix Ford Fiesta R5)

79 Jeffrey Panton – JAM/Michael Fennell Jnr – JAM (FIA R5 KIG/Sandals Resorts/Bushy Park Barbados Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo)

80 Roger Hill/Graham Gittens (FIA R5 Esso/MaxMeyer Paints/MotorMac Skoda Fabia R5)

81 Dane Skeete/Tyler Mayhew (WRC Automotive Art/CO Williams Sand & Lime/Sol Subaru Impreza WRC S12)

82 Stuart Maloney/Kristian Yearwood (FIA R5 Rock Hard Cement/VP Fuels/Chevron/Bushy Park Barbados/Sign Station Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo)

83 Hayden Paddon – NZL/John Kennard - NZL (FIA R5 Tourism Development Corporation/Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc/Automotive Art/Valvoline Hyundai i20 R5)