The first Manx Auto Sport forest rally since 2010 was held on Saturday 10th November, sponsored by Dave Corris Autos, which took part in four of the Islands most gruelling and challenging plantations an event which can only be described as brilliant, and a thrilling end to the 2012 rally season.
All praise to Mark Ellison, and his team for organising this one as it saw 23 of the Islands best crews battle it out over 10 stages with a total of 32 stage miles, through the toughest plantations on the Island.
Conditions were terrible with a mix of hail stones, heavy rain & sun making the forest conditions very wet, muddy, slippy & demanding on all crews.
Vital Championship points were at stake and only a few points separated the top men from winning the Manx Auto Sport and Euro Cars Championships, competition was fierce.
Starting in Conrhenny, George Collister and Janet Craine in the EVO 3, were first off, George was flying, as was Connor Corkill & Jenny Anderson in the MK11 Escort, Nigel Cannell & Graham Fargher in the EVO, Dave Corris & Daughter Rachael in the Escort Cosworth, Timmy Collins & Paul McCann EVO 6, Martyn Jones & David Radcliffe in the Nova, in fact I could name the whole 23 competitors as every one was trying hard.
The first stage caught out Martyn Jones in the Nova who was flying until he hit a large rock and put the Nova on its roof, Ben Hardy had carb problems loosing time and David Cluckie and Luke Tunney finding a big ditch, all drivers were all OK, there wasn't a driver who didn't get caught out in this event, at some time or another.
The old boys of Terry Philips and North were going well, after I criticised their impaired vision in an earlier article Terry made a point of telling me that they had fitted a prescription windscreen and their vision had improved 100%, this was borne out as the car came home 1ST in class C, good to see Ian Tunney and Nigel Morris in the BMW E30, and Peter Eaton & David Turner in the Fiesta doing well.
Matt Davison & Tash Ellison won the novice award in the MK11 Escort, Chris Reynolds and Grant Leece going well in the Subaru; Greig Davison & Wayne Smith took second in group A, behind Davy Jones & Andrew Cowley 1st in the Nova.
There was bad luck for Peppe Planeta and Caz McEvoy in the new EVO 9 after hitting a tree on stage 6, Archallagan, crew ok but sore, leading to the cancellation of this stage and stage 8.
A real spectators rally, Kex Walker and Danny Matthews were thrilling, with lots of sideways action in the BMW, as was Matty Carter in the MK1, Ben Hardy in the MK11 Escort, and the aforementioned Connor Corkill, also mentions to Jason Daly, Tim Healy, Andrew Holmes, Kevin Jeffray & Richard Barnard, who were on the pace all day.
Back to Conrhenny for the final two stages, conditions had not improved at all and to add to the excitement it was getting dark, all crews were tired but still going strong, everyone had a great days rallying and finished the event.
Many Thanks to All Marshalls, Time Keepers, Medics, Doc Pete and all who helped.
