The F3 star that shone in Barbados

Number one seeds on a rally are always a big deal.

In the World Rally Championship it’s reserved only for the reigning world champion. In a regional series, like the European Rally Championship, it’s the championship leader that wears that coveted number on their doors. And on a national rally, it’s either allocated to any FIA seeded drivers or the previous year’s winner of the event.

None of that applies to the Škoda Fabia R5 that was waved off the ramp first at a Sol gas station in Speightstown for last weekend’s Rally Barbados. Though that’s certainly not to say the driver behind the wheel was not a big deal.

Zane Maloney is Barbados motorsport’s bright young hope. The 19-year-old is firmly on his way up the single-seater ladder, winning the British F4 championship in 2019 to now compete with Trident in FIA Formula 3 – traveling the world in a Formula 1 support category.

But rallying? That was all new for Maloney, despite it running deep within the family thanks to his uncle, Stuart Maloney. And yet he had earned that number one on the door courtesy of a stunning and surprise victory on the King of the Hill warm-up event a week prior to Rally Barbados.

Expectations of what Maloney could achieve were therefore naturally raised, but there was still no escaping the fact he faced a tall order to finish the rally where he started it.

The first loop was unspectacular – Maloney confessing “we started off a bit too slow” as he settled into an early third position, 20 seconds down on the leader.

“Obviously I’ve never done this before so this is my first time with everything but I’m glad we’re still in the rally,” he added.

“There’s 20 seconds to gain but of course we’re still in the game.”

However the threat was clearly there, as evidenced by Maloney’s stage win on the much-talked about and feared Dark Hole stage earlier that day.

It was then absolutely confirmed across the final loop of day one when he won two of the last three stages to slash his deficit to 10.7s.

The idea was that Maloney would launch a full-on victory bid across the final day’s 10 stages and pull off the impossible.

He was certainly up for it: “This morning it’s maximum attack straightaway,” he said at the beginning of Sunday, “but of course we need to keep it on the road to stay in the rally and stay in the fight.”

Unfortunately Maloney didn’t heed his own advice. He caught onto the ‘maximum attack’ part, but approaching a famous section of stage called ‘duck pond’ – so called because a pair of S-bends swoop past a pond full of ducks – Maloney got his line all wrong which began a chain of events resulting in his Fabia losing a wheel.

“We knew that we needed to make up some time today so I was maximum attack straightaway and the stage was amazing until duck pond where I went to the right obviously and on the stage notes I remember we called the left like we were preparing the right so we were all the way to the right-hand side and then into the three left opens,” Maloney told DirtFish.

“But I came into the right a bit too hot so I was already out of position and I tried to carry too much in the left. Thinking back I could have probably avoided the pole but if we had avoided the pole someone might not have their house, so the best thing happened and to be honest this Dark Hole stage [afterwards] was so dangerous that if I was feeling good and confident I would have really gone at it, so maybe everything happens for a reason, we’ll see.”

It was a bitterly disappointing end for what was shaping up to be an epic debut performance. But rallying has left its mark on Maloney, and he wants more of it.

“It’s been amazing. Of course we were in for the win let’s say, pushing Dane [Skeete] and uncle Stuart to the end.

“After the crash I was down but we still had uncle Stuart to win the rally, but obviously the next stage he had a crash as well so not a good day for us. But I had a lot of fun.

“Even when I went to pick the wheel up afterwards, there were thousands of people coming around talking to everyone, so it’s been amazing [to be] back home.

“I had a lot of fun, [there was] no pressure when it came to this. For sure I’ll be doing it again.

“Hopefully in a few years I get to Formula 1 and we can [come back and] have a lot of fun.”

The wait for a Maloney win on Rally Barbados therefore goes on, but it may not be too long until it happens if Stuart’s performance was anything to go by.

He was ruthlessly fast, but just didn’t quite marry that with the required consistency to make it to the end unscathed. Despite an awkward landing over a crest that sent him wayward, into a kerb and dislodged a wheel, Maloney was philosophical about his lot. He had no regrets.

“I mean I was fighting for the win, not for fourth or fifth place,” he told DirtFish.

“I think I pushed too hard without having a pass through in this [opposite] direction [to Saturday] and I think I should’ve used this one just to see how hard I could have gone through that bumpy section.

“I think I just took what I was doing yesterday [Saturday] and tried to do it today [Sunday] and it was just too fast.

“My intention was to push, it was only the three of us, we were tooth and nail battle and there was no way of winning the rally without pushing. The problem is competing against a big WRC car with an R5, it’s difficult [so] you’ve got to be on it.

“I stopped rallying about 15, 20 years [ago] so I’m really only now back into it. I wet my feet a little with some front-wheel-drive cars but it was really the first time on the sharp edge now.

“I have never led Rally Barbados before. I was leading it as a co-driver, and won it as a co-driver, but never as a driver.

“It’s a massive box to tick, but you need to finish it to win it.”

Ironically, the driver that would ultimately pip Maloney to the post this year, Dane Skeete, was the son of the driver Maloney won the event with back in 2014, Roger Skeete.

Rallying is often built on rivalries. A local one, on a local rally, is just that little bit tastier. The Maloney revenge arc should make Rally Barbados 2023 one not to miss.