Ulsterman Ryan Barrett and locally based co-drover Paul McCann (MkII Ford Escort) take a 3 minute 15 second lead into the third and final day of the historic Rallee Classicagh section of Rally Isle of Man powered by Microgaming.
The pair led the way into day two but it was Rob Smith in his Escort who reeled off a string of five fastest times early on, moving up to fifth place before ultimately crashing out mid-afternoon at Cringle.
Will Onions/Dave Williams smashed a rim at the same spot, crews caught out by water across the road on an otherwise dry stage, allowing David Stokes/Guy Weaver to grab second place.
The Dursley baker then tried to pressure Barrett a little, taking four fastest stage times on the night-time tests, including both runs through the Castletown town centre.
Barrett however hit back on the final test to re-assert his position.
Guy Woodcock/Graham Dance (Escort) hold third, just 11 seconds up on Onions, to set up a battle to the finish.
The other major retirement on the day were John Kirkpatrick/Martyn Quine, their Sunbeam Lotus sidelined with a broken gearbox.
TEG Sport Subaru’s Arron Newby/Rob Fagg top the Manx International Rally leaderboard, moving to the top on Friday afternoon and extending their advantage to 1m39s by the end of the night.
Nigel and Michaela Cannell led into the day and through the first loop of tests, but at first service found a problem with the Star Services Evo IX’s gearbox. They attempted to carry on, but it coincided with Newby upping his pace. The Carnforth teenager overhauled Andrew Leece/Graham Fargher (Evo VI) for second place on SS9 Dollagh. One stage later at Bretney they swept to the lead.
No sooner than they done so however the Subaru was beset by differential problems that have left the car in two wheel drive mode for most of the rest of the day, before a change of unit at the overnight halt.
Fortunately for them, all around were also having problems. Leece suffered a puncture and then a roll on SS14 .179 whilst the Cannell’s missed an afternoon loop before re-joining for the second part of the Eurocars motorsport Manx Championship double-header.
Steve Quine/Richard Skinner were changing the suspension settings on their Evo IX at each service and still weren’t confident with it by nights end, but did enough to grab third place from Steve Colley/Andrew Cowley’s Evo by just 0.2s, as Colley complained of a wheel bearing or transfer box problem with his Evo VIII.
Fifth placed Connor Corkill/Mark Perryman were also struggling with differential problems on their Subaru, while Darren Atkinson/Phil Sandham are the top two-wheel drive crew, sixth in their Ford Escort.
Pat Bettridge/Paul Gelling (Subaru) lead the Manx Trophy Rally that started this evening, after early leaders Peter Thornton and Barrie Ford (Subaru) rolled out of the event on the final stage at Chibbanagh.
The pair had been fastest on each of the four stages up to then, but Bettridge inherited a 41.4s advantage over Matthew and Ian Davison’s MKII Escort, with Wayne Ellis/Sarah Harbour (Peugeot 205) third.
Crews have the ultimate wake-up call for day 3, a helter-skelter second trip down Tholt-e-Will!
It’s the first of eight stages to conclude, the final four of which are all over 11 miles long, ensuring that completing this anniversary edition will be a real achievement in its own right.
The rally concludes with the now traditional Classic stage, joining the TT course at Cronk-ny-Mona and heading to the TT finish line, shortly after 3.30pm on Saturday.
