by Clifton Henry

For more than a year, Barbadian racing fans were anxiously awaiting the return of Mark Maloney and his Guinness Power record-breaker Mazda RX3 at Bushy Park. The wait is finally over.

Maloney's RX3 arrived in the Island on Wednesday and he immediately set about getting it in shape for today's action at the Bushy Park, St Philip raceway. It will be decked out in the colours of his new sponsors, Red Bull.

Also making a grand return to the fray in today's action after losing his engine in last year's Sol International Race Meet is his brother Stuart Maloney. Stuart's Evolution 7 will be flying the popular Automotive Art colours and the car looked very impressive yesterday during testing.

When SUNSPORTS caught up with Stuart after a few early laps, he said he was very impressed with the car's handling but cautioned his fans not to expect too much from this first event.

New car

"I am not expecting to break any records or even to dominate in this first event. The car is a new car. We have done extensive work with it – engine, suspension, brakes, transmission, the body – in fact it is almost an entirely new car," he said.

In addition to his brother Mark, Stuart said, he expected Roger Mayers to be among his principal challengers.

Yesterday, Mark Maloney said he was unsure how well his car would perform in today's event since up to late afternoon lots of mechanical and electrical work still had to be done by his specialist team.

He explained that the car had been rebuilt with the chassis strengthened, a new roll-cage fitted, a three-rotor engine replaced the previous two-rotor, and independent rear suspension added.

"In fact, the engine has not even been started since arriving in the island on Wednesday. We are currently working around the clock to get it ready. It is a far better package and should be about a 50 per cent more powerful engine," he said.

The revs around the track start at 10 a.m.