Part 3.
Back for the final part of the Manx summary bringing through our final few crews.
Before I start. I want to say on behalf of the Mini Rally Challenge organising team and it’s members. A huge thankyou to the organisers of the Manx Rally 2024 and the marshals for making it all happen. Without volunteers, stage rallying in the UK wouldn’t be possible and their hard work along with give up their free time means that we can go rallying and experience these incredible stages. So from everyone at the Mini Rally Challenge. Thankyou.
We pick back up again with Martin Williams and Martin Allwood. This year was the pairs 3rd venture to the Isle of Man, however it was only their second time competing the Mini, they started strong happily getting through the stages. Until in the queue for stage 8 they noticed steam from the bonnet and the temperature of the engine had increased quite drastically. They pulled over and after persuading some passing crews to donate some water they got themselves back in action. Into the night their bad luck continued they lost their headlights but thankful managed to get it to the finish and back to service, thankfully that was the end of the night stages and they wouldn’t be needing the lights for Saturday. After a testing Friday, Saturday was a fresh of breath air as they really started to get a handle of their Mini through the stages and Martin impressed with the grip he had underneath him so could settle into a rhythm. Both were made up to finish as 3rd R53 on the Saturday and have been left with a hunger to get back out competing. In the 2024 season they are only competing the tarmac championship this year but we will see them back at in in August.
Out in their R50 Wesley Gilford and Andrew Millington had decided to try and play the long game, starting off steady with the aim of getting a finish knowing that the hard roads of the Isle of Man were bound to cause problems for some of the other competitors, they were going well making really good time through the second leg in the dark. Finishing the day in 3rd place. They were confident starting the third leg on Saturday morning, pushing but trying to keep it safe. When they saw that Jack and then Owen had both had problems they thought they had it in the bag and just needed to make it home, however they ran into cooling issues which stopped them before the final stage. They manage to get it to service to get themselves a finish but unfortunately this meant they had dropped from the top three. Wesley said they both gained a lot of experience from the event and enjoyed being able to put some faces to names from our ever expanding paddock.
John Day had local Manxman Will Brown in his second seat. The pair struck problems early on when in stage three they picked up a puncture somewhere in a hair pin. Their troubles were only to continue when Johns brand new jack failed and he had to use the assistance of a grass bank to change the wheel. By this time the recovery crew had already reached them and their plans of trying to continue leg one were in the wind. Luckily they managed to get themselves back out later in the day after thinking it was over before they really got started, however it did mean they were well and truly clear of any substantial points. On the Saturday John played his joker meaning he had a chance to pull some important championship points. The third leg for the pair was much better getting some speed up on the stages and having confidence in the car. Admitting he could have probably pushed a bit harder but wanted to make sure they made the finish on such a challenging rally. John said the experience at the Manx was incredible, from the spectators, the atmosphere at the paddock and the Manx countryside he thoroughly enjoyed his time. They had one or two hairy moments in the last few stages, experiencing the back end stepping out a bit but nothing they didn’t have in hand.
Another of our R53 crews George and Stephen were heading into the rally hoping for a podium, in their own words however they were Humbled by Tim and Gareth. They went well Unfortunately they found they had arrived to time control a minute early picking up a penalty, ultimately meaning they dropped down the running order. Day 2 came with the realisation that they had picked the wrong suspension and were really struggling with the tough stages and the car took quite a hammering. Feel like they couldn’t push on otherwise they would only cause damage they still caused severe damage to their manifold and had to put out a small fire. They made the decision to bring the car home and get the finish meaning they again lost position but it paid off as they made it home after the final day of rallying. Another to add to the list of crews who thoroughly enjoyed the event and wish to return in the future…. Next time with a different suspension set up.
Due to the popular nature of the Manx, we unfortunately had a few crews waiting in reserve in the hope they would get a run before the start. The last of our waiting crews were Toney Webb and David Robinson. They decided to take the risk of loading up and heading to the island in the hope that getting themselves over to the isleand they may be luckily enough to get a run…… and it paid off. After the huge roller-coaster of a build up to their Manx campaign they found themselves with a map sensor issue on the first day, they managed to borrow one to get themselves going again. Apart from that they put in some solid stages over the two days and said they had an awesome time at the incredibly event. They finished 81st over all which they are incredibly pleased with and are glad they persevered. That being said, Toney has said he isn’t sure the jumps and bumps of the Manx don’t see to have done his slipped disk much good…. So will unfortunately be sitting Kielder out in a few weeks… hopefully it won’t be too long before we see the pair out again.
Finally, our current R50 champions Jacob and Russel….. they went into the Manx not totally confident in the car following an engine swap, and having braking issues at Anglesey that hadn’t been rectified before their DNF. So without having had the chance to test they would be starting stage on with a bit of the unknown. The first few stages they took it steady, in the most part because Jacob didn’t want to push the car too hard trying to understand what they had to work with. Getting into the evening confidence grew and this helped them climb back up to the ranking around where they wanted to be. Through out the morning they had been struggling with the car on the bumps. The backend stepped out at one point and it seemed like they weren’t getting enough travel from the read suspension. Unfortunately on the last stage on the Friday they were to get caught out again, on what they thought was an innocent bump in around 4th gear and then there wasn’t much they could do after that. They were sent sharply into a field where the car came to a stop, fortunately causing very little damage to the car and both of the crew left unscathed. To add to their misfortune, recovery were unable to get the car moved before midnight which meant it had to be left over night and they weren’t going to make it back to service. A local farmer dragged them out the following morning after a long wait. They did manage to get it back to service to get out for some stages on the Saturday. Overall they had an adventure and learnt a lot about the car. It wasn’t their ideal weekend but in the grand scheme of things they came out the other side pretty well and have some more closed roads experience under their hats for the future….
To wrap it all up. An overall great event for the Mini Rally Challenge crews, plenty of action and most importantly plenty of smiles. Once again a huge thankyou to everyone involved in running and planning the event. Without you we wouldn’t be able to go out and create such great memories.
Next we’re back in the forest….. see you at Kielder
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