ARC / RD 2&3 / MANX RALLY 2024

09/06/2024 Off By admin

WORDS BY ANDY COOK & DAN MORRIS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY: DAVID HALES, JAMES WARD (CHICANE MEDIA) & THE ASPHALT RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

The 2024 Protyres Asphalt Rally Championship would move on from what became a short sharp blast around the Lancashire Lanes, onto the ferry, and across to the intimidating Isle of Man for the iconic Manx Rally.

In Douglas, crews would be greeted by approximately 130 stage miles across 15 stages, with the rally split into two point-scoring rounds over the two intense days of competition. This event is deeply embedded in rallying history, boasting a winners’ circle filled with a plethora of past and present World and British Rallying stars since its incarnation back in 1963.

Among those who have previously won “The Manx”, is the 2023 Protyres Asphalt Rally Champs Callum Black & Jack Morton who were eager to put the first round behind them and hoping to dominate a rally in which they excelled in and won last year. However, coming into this event as the Championship leaders having won the opening round, was the renewed partnership of James Williams and Ross Whittock, in their Orange Amplifiers-backed Hyundai I20 Rally2 who would prove to be more than a match for Black & Morton on the iconic Manx lanes.

Also returning after a strong opening round at the North West Stages and hoping to make a mark was the 2023 Manx Rally runner-up Neil Roskell, with his Fiesta fixed up after a last-corner blunder which nearly cost him that second place last time out. Mark Kelly was another hopeful to start the season strong with a non-championship win at the East Riding Stages for which he followed up with a third-place finish at the North West Stages Rally and having only managed a sixth-place finish at the North West, our 2022 Champ Steve Wood, would be looking to make strides and to be in the mix on the Manx.

ROUND 2

The event would get underway mid-day on the Friday along the southern shoreline of the Island with a double pass of the Pooil Vaaish test; at just 3.5 miles in length, it was “A good start” for Williams & Whittock in the Hyundai i20 N Rally2 car, who set the benchmark on these two opening stages.

Photo: James Williams & Ross Whittock | Source: Asphalt Rally Championship

“I had a good feeling in the car to start with and that’s what it’s all about. I’m really enjoying it, the weather is brilliant and the cars working nicely. It’s gotta count, we’ve got to make a mark of it so we are going to go for it.”
James Williams

The same, however, couldn’t be said for Black & Morton who made what Black described as a “Stupid Mistake” on the first pass, taking a cut and clipping a rock which damaged the front left corner of the Ford Fiesta Rally2.

“It’s so fast in this car and I just lost concentration, the steering is the biggest issue, to be honest”. The pair would drive the second pass of the stage with bent steering and would end up third after those first two, 2.8 seconds behind the Skoda Fabia R5 of Mark Kelly & Will Atkins, who thought that their beginning to the rally was “a little untidy”.

Photos: Mark Kelly & Will Atkins / Neil Roskell & Dai Roberts / Hugh Hunter & Rob Fagg | Source: Asphalt Rally Championship

Williams & Whittock would begin to pick up the pace over the following two stages through SS3 Eairy & SS4 Injebreck, extending their lead over Kelly to what was an already sizable 48.4 seconds for that opening loop. Holding P3 were Neil Roskell & Dai Roberts and although the leaderboard looked as if the pair were having a good start to their Manx, Roskell was in fact struggling with the set-up of his Ford Fiesta Rally2 car.

“We’re off the pace and struggling with the set-up, it’s just not right for me and I can’t commit” Roskell commented; 14.1 seconds was the deficit to Kelly in front and just 2.3 separated him and Hugh Hunter & Rob Fagg behind who were fighting with a few gremlins of their own.

“We had big problems on the shakedown, the car’s really flat and we didn’t know what was wrong. We did a bit of work in service before the off and there was still a flat spot, but It seems to be clear now.“
Hugh Hunter

Photo: Callum Black & Jack Morton | Source: Asphalt Rally Championship

Back out for the second loop of the day and Black was back on the pace after fixing the bent steering; he and Co-Driver Morton had finally picked up their first stage win in SS5 Keristal beating Williams by 2.1, but Williams retaliated in the very next test, SS6 Balladoole. “Neat and tidy, we’ve got a bit of a lead now so we need to look after it, we wanna keep the rhythm as well” Williams said.

With every passing stage, the leaders were pulling out more and more time over the second-place crew, Kelly & Atkins, who had by now realised that the fight was perhaps over. “I don’t think we are catching James, are we? he’s in a league of his own today”, “Fair play to him because he’s been absolutely flying. We’ll just keep doing our own thing and keep plugging away”. In the third spot, Neil “Gotta get me head into it” Roskell kept pushing on and was just about holding onto that P3 by the skin of his teeth; just 0.4 seconds was the difference between him and Hunter in fourth.

The seventh stage had to be cancelled due to a non-rally related incident on the Island and the crews would head into the darkness for 15 miles of SS8 Ellerslie & 11.5 of Little London to end the day. With these two final tests, it was all about the fight back for Black & Morton and how many points they could claw back; but those two stages would end the day full of drama for a number of the crews.

Photos: James Williams & Ross Whittock / Mark Kelly & Will Atkins / Neil Roskell & Dai Roberts | By David Hales

Williams & Whittock recorded their sixth stage win on SS8 Ellerslie but in other news, Mark Kelly & Neil Roskell were both in trouble. Stopping in the stage Atkins with a broken Brake Caliper and Roskell with an off, which dropped them out of contention and down the leaderboard, thus promoting Hunter & Fagg to second and Black & Morton into the final podium place.

James Williams & Ross Whittock would not escape the drama themselves, losing the brakes on the Hyundai i20 N Rally2, but they were not about to give up the win. They would have to be resourceful and use water and Lucozade to top up the fluid in order to make it through those final two stages and to bring it home. Entering the final eleven and a half miles of Little London with a whopping 1 minute and 28 seconds in hand over Hunter & Fagg, Williams & Whittock would indeed emerge (if only a little relieved) to take the victory, picking up maximum points on the first day of this double header event.

Unfortunately for Hugh Hunter & Robert Fagg, that second spot was lost in the final test of the day, the pair spun and hit a wall which lost them a chunk of time, dropping them down to 5th overall behind Simon Bowen & Craig Simkiss in the Fiesta S2000 (4th). For Hunter & Fagg, returning to the Manx where they had a sizable off last year was always going to be a big psychological test and to end the opening day of the rally in a wall having put in a decent performance was not a great way to return to the scene and end their day.

Photos: James Williams & Ross Whittock / Steve Wood & Kenny Hull / Darren Atkinson & Mathew Daniels | Source: Asphalt Rally Championship

That final stage misdemeanour for Hunter had, however, given Callum Black & Jack Morton a bit of a last-minute reprieve. The pair signed off with the final stage win to secure second place and had somehow recused their opening day, crossing the finish line some 47.4 seconds ahead of Steve Wood & Kenny Hull who rounded out the podium in their Citroen C3 Rally2 car. Elsewhere, Darren Atkinson & Mathew Daniels would take the 2WD driver honours in their MKII Ford Escort, coming home in 6th overall.

POS	LEADERBOARD	TIME
1	#2 J.WILLIAMS / R.WHITTOCK	47:20.5
2	#1 C.BLACK / J.MORTON	+1:18.9
3	#5 S.WOOD / K.HULL	+47.4
4	#11 S.BOWEN / C.SIMKISS	+22.3
5	#6 H.HUNTER / R.FAGG	+0.7

ROUND 3

The crews would re-set and go again for the second day and what would be the third points-scoring round of the Championship. The day would begin with some big jumps in the Switchback test to wake the crew up and Black was eager to chase down Williams to make amends for his opening stage mistake on day one, the pair began the day with just a small win of 0.5 seconds over Williams on SS10.

“Some massive jumps in there, there’s one that I didn’t expect to take off and we were in the air for what felt like forever. It’s tricky and hard work, but we’re back and we’re enjoying it”
Callum Black

Photos: Callum Black & Jack Morton | Mark Kelly & Will Atkins | By Chicane Media

Meanwhile, Mark Kelly & Will Atkins were also back up to speed having recorded the third fastest time here; but before their day had really begun there was already drama inside the cockpit of his Skoda Fabia R5.

“Just trying to get settled back in now so I was a little bit cagey in there. We’ve had an issue on the way to the stage which has wobbled us a bit”, “We left the cap of the reservoir for the brake fluid off so it covered peddle box and my shoes but we got it sorted and we’ll have a push now”
Mark Kelly

Both Hugh Hunter and Neil Roskell were back out having patched up their Ford Fiesta Rally2 cars following their offs the previous evening. Leading up to his off on final test the night before, Hunter said “The car felt really nervous for some reason”. But today was a new day and another points-scoring opportunity, “We’ve done a tweak on the back and it felt ok” Hunter reported at the stop line of stage 10; meanwhile, Neil Roskell was “Just getting settled in” and was thankful to the team who put in a late one getting the car fixed up the night before “The team did a marvellous job working until 2 am in the morning and got it turned around so a massive thanks to them”.

Photos: Hugh Hunter & Rob Fagg – By David Hales | Neil Roskell & Dai Robers – By Chicane Media

Showing determination, Black and Morton topped the timing sheets once again in SS11 St Judes, this time the margin over Williams & Whittock was 5.1 seconds; but sadly for Black & Morton, their chargeback would come to an end here, Callum explains:

“The plan today was to get maximum points and we started really well, fastest on the first stage. Halfway through the second one we started to get some oil vapour on the screen and realised that it probably wasn’t a good sign. I didn’t have any alarms and we got to the end of the stage, when we pulled up we noticed some oil on the floor, went down the road a little bit and the oil pressure alarm came up. We worked out the oil hose that goes from the cooler to the engine, there’s a little clip that had snapped and worked its way loose. We tried to fix it but that was that really….that’s rallying I’m afraid.”
Callum Black

With Black & Morton out of the picture, Steve Wood & Kenny Hull in the Citroen C3 Rally2 assumed second position behind rally leaders Williams & Whittock; with Hugh Hunter & Robert Fagg in third who were making up the lost time from their previous night’s antics.

Photos: Steve Wood & Kenny Hull | Hugh Hunter & Rob Fagg | By David Hales

With the final loop of three stages remaining, Williams and Whittock came back out from the final service halt with their sights firmly set on taking another maximum points haul and the win. Adding the second pass through SS13 The Switchback and the final blast through SS15 The Baldwins to their tally of stage wins, the pair would take to the top step of the Protyres Asphalt Rally Championship podium having crossed the finish line with an overall margin of over 4 minutes across the two intense days of rallying.

“Solid weekend to be fair, I’m just over the moon with the feeling that I had in the car and the confidence that I had to push in the stages; that’s just been coming this year and we’ve not really had that so far. Everything worked well, Ross did an amazing job and the team’s done a fantastic job to get us here.”

Photo: James Williams & Ross Whittock | By Chicane Media

On the Manx, Williams had delivered, not only was his first outright national rally win, but had also scored maximum points towards his Championship campaign on the first three rounds of the year.

“Just a massive weight off my shoulders, to get my first win, that was the biggest thing for me, I really needed to tick that box. I think this result shows that we are going in the right direction.
James Williams

Bringing his Citroen C3 Rally2 car home for the runners-up spot was our 2022 Champ, Irishman Steve Wood, alongside Kenny Hull, calling the notes. Somewhat a little bit under the radar, the pair had come out on top of that battle with Hugh Hunter and had also seen off the likes of Neil Roskell and Will Atkins, who both had an up-and-down rally themselves.

Photo: Steve Wood & Kenny Hull | By David Hales

“It’s a very tough rally and it’s all about endurance and survival and finishing the rally, I did my best to keep him (Steve Wood) calm all weekend…. delighted, we were third here last year and second this year.”, “We weren’t necessarily the fastest but we kept our head and drove within ourselves and that’s paid off.”
Kenny Hill (Co-Driver to Steve Wood)

Rounding out the podium, a slightly relieved Hugh Hunter was in his own words, “glad to get the monkey off his back!”, “Just to get through, it’s a bit of a psychology thing because it was quite a big accident” Hunter comments, referring to last year when he and Co-Driver Rob Fagg had a sizable off on the Manx. “We are just really happy, to be honest, we’ve had a couple of things but we’ve kept going and the car was going well in the end.”

Photos: Hugh Hunter & Rob Fagg – By Chicane Media | Simon Bowen & Craig Simkiss – Source: Asphalt Rally Championship

Just 9.2 seconds was the gap between Hunter and Woods in second, and a further 50.1 between him and fourth place Simon Bowen & Craig Simkiss in the Ford Fiesta S2000. Now that Hunter had scored well over the two days on the Manx, it will give him the bases to give the championship a full go at, over the two Scottish rounds (The Jim Clark & Argyll) which follow the Manx.

“We gonna be up at Scotland at Duns and we’ll definitely be at the Argyll as well. We’ll take it from there I think, just take it a step at a time and see how we go. We didn’t score well on the NW but we did ok here.”
Hugh Hunter

Rounding out the top 5 and also taking the two-wheel drive honours for both days were, Darren Atkinson & Mathew Daniels in the MKII Ford Escort, but their rally came very close to being a DNF!

“It’s gone well, we’ve been doing a lot on the notes, Matty has been bracing himself for it and he’s not had many bollockings”

“It’s been a fantastic weekend but we wasn’t nearly here, come the last stage! Damian Toner lent us a spanner, the wire came off the alternator and he helped us, otherwise, we wouldn’t have been here”
Darren Atkinson