Another weekend of mixed fortunes for the LCMC club members over a challenging and often hard hitting 140 miles of Manx roads with a pretty good after-rally party to boot!
Jack Bowen navigating for Oliver Davies – finished 17th overall and 5th in class. First time for Jack competing on the IoM and the aim was simply to finish and get some points in the Protyre championship. Eventful start to the event for Jack when his door latch failed during the shakedown stage, meaning he had to hold the door closed through the stage. This was promptly fixed in service before SS1. They reported a clean run through Leg 1 (Fri morning) with a slight anti-roll bar issue on SS4, but still ended up 27th overall. Leg 2 (Fri night) saw no dramas besides out-braking themselves for a hairpin on SS7 but with minimal time loss and maintaining 27th overall. Leg 3 (Saturday) started well on the first three stages, however about 2 miles into SS13 they had an exhaust manifold issue, meaning the car had a lack of power and was running on three cylinders. They lost well over 30 seconds but managed to complete the stage. The service crew did the best they could to fix it however after going well in SS4, 2 miles from the end of stage, the manifold issue happened again. Both Oliver and Jack made quick repairs on the side of the road before SS15 which thankfully held together for SS15 and ss16 seeing them claim a very respectable 17th overall and 5th in class D.
Alan Walker & Dan Petrie – finished 19th overall and 3rd in class. A new pairing with Alan’s first proper tarmac event since 2011. The change to gravel suspension/hybrid for the Saturday leg proved to be a master stroke as the crew reported some massive moments on the Friday stages including clipping a rock in the grass and sustaining a broken back wheel which was changed on the road section. They went into the overnight halt 36th overall and 4th in Class H3. Having only taken wets and too soft tyres for clearly inclement weather conditions, wheels and tyres were provided by Will Onions and as the sunny dry conditions continued the bigger engine cars continued to take time out of the pair. A fairly clean run on Saturday, apart from, a crowd pleasing spin, and a steering rack held on with a ratchet strap, saw the pair remain 4th in class until early class leader Will fell by the wayside on SS11 promoting them to 3rd in class H3 where they remained until the finish.
Jez Rogers navigating for Matt Pierce – DNF. An unfortunate engine issue saw Jez out of the event after SS1. Just when you thought Lady Luck had got back on side…
Anthony Elkes & Alex Lewis - DNF. Unfortunately this crew also had an early bath with an engine failure on shakedown so resorted to researching for their IOM Best Pub Guide! They will however be back to tackle the island again. Better news on the Sunday with Anthony reporting to have won the karting with no engine problems.
Photographs courtesy of Ben Lawrence and Martyns Fotos
Next weekend sees LCMC crews out in force on the Plains Rally which is a round of the Fuchs Lubricants Motorsport UK British Historic Rally Championship, Motorsport UK Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship and ANWCC Forest Rally Championships based in Bala.
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