Zane Maloney is the early leader of the 2020 Radical Caribbean Cup (RCC), following a hat-trick of race wins in the March 15 opening round at Bushy Park Barbados. On his way to building up a 26-point lead over 2018 regional Champion Stuart Maloney in the five-round series, he also set new Qualifying and Race Records.
In a 10-minute session, 16-year-old Zane punched in the first sub-60s lap, then chipped away to break the Qualifying Record with a time of 57.660s, more than half-a-second better than his father Sean’s 2018 time. Trinidad & Tobago’s Kristian Boodoosingh improved on his personal best by six-tenths to line up second. Stuart and Mark Maloney occupied the second row, with the returning Suleman Esuf fifth, ahead of Boodoosingh’s T&T team-mate Luke Bhola. Hampered by a down-on-power engine, Sean Maloney was seventh, England’s Brian Caudwell eighth and the grid completed by newcomer Raymond Seebarran of Guyana; T&T’s Zachary Boodram was sidelined with engine problems.
Starting from the southern grid, Boodoosingh took the lead from race one pole man Maloney into the ‘W’s, holding it for two laps, until an electrical fault caused his retirement. As the teenager eased away for his first win of the day, Stuart and Mark Maloney battled race-long, completing the podium in that order. Zane Maloney was the first driver to score an additional point for fastest lap, his new Race Record (58.068s) five-hundredths better than Mark Maloney’s September 2017 mark and a new Outright Lap Record.
Caudwell and Sean Maloney sat on the front row of the reversed grid for the second race, Caudwell making a confident start to hold the lead for six laps; shortly after he was swamped by those behind, he retired, handing the lead to Zane Maloney, who then lost it to his uncle Mark, regaining the upper hand on the final lap. Based on points scored in the first two races, Zane and Mark were on the front row for the final race, their earlier battle repeated in the opening laps. Stuart Maloney took the lead just before half-distance in a big shuffle, which also benefitted Boodoosingh, who had made good progress from the back of the grid to fourth place behind Esuf. Two laps from home, Esuf’s car switched to safe mode, promoting Boodoosingh to third behind hat-trick winner Zane Maloney, who had taken the lead from his uncle Stuart on the last lap.