Finish on the Jim Clark for Metcalfe/Fagg

ManxNet backed Rob Fagg finished the disrupted Jim Clark Junior Rally last weekend in a disappointing 47^th overall. He was competing alongside Dumfries based Tom Metcalfe. The event was the fifth round of the Ford Rallye Sport Ka Championship and with finishing 17^th Ka out of the 22 starters this bought championship points for both Tom and Rob.

This was the pairings first event together, Tom in only his second Ka event teamed up with Manx Motorsport Youth Trust recipient Rob who was available due to regular driver Matthew Bettridge missing the event due to unresolved issues with his Ka. After a successful reece period over the events stages both were confident of a good run even though this was Tom'’s first event on Tarmac.

The event began with 2 runs over the spectator stage in the Ocean Terminal complex, a good clean run resulted in setting the second fasted Ka time only 1 tenth of a second slower than series leader Johnny Wigmore. On the second run through it looked as if they would improve on the time from there first run till they caught a tyre in the chicane which broke a track rod end and left the car with only one wheel steering. The time was only 3 seconds slower than the fastest Ka, eventual round winner David Crossen.

It was then a battle to get the car back to service to fix the steering problem. With the right hand wheel being dragged along the road it was inevitable that it would blow out eventually and when it did they would be stranded on the road section. After a quick wheel change Tom tried to continue but it appeared the drive shaft had snapped, it was then left for the crew to push it back to service.

Once in service the crew began to work and fix the car as quickly as they possible could. After a frantic time the car emerged at the time out control although it was 6 minutes late resulting in a one-minute penalty which would cost them dear at the end of the event.

The second day of the event would be disrupted by accidents, which caused stage cancellations. This resulted in Tom and Rob only competing on 2 stages of the days scheduled 6. With stages 3 and 4 cancelled they attacked the fifth, Chirnside 1 and within 5 miles they had caught the car in front which they passed without delay but a spin in the stage though cost them ten seconds.

After a quick service they would head to the Kimmerghame stage but this was cancelled for the second time and the crews headed to Ayton, this had also been cancelled early but would run this time. With all the cancellations and hanging about it was hard to get into the stage and they would complete the stage 15^th Ka, 34 seconds off Wigmore.

With the last stage of the event also cancelled they would finish 17^th Ka, 3 minutes behind round winner David Crossen.

Tom and Rob finished the event as 17th Ka, but were both disappointed with the result as feel with the stage mileage they may have been able to recover more of the minute they lost on the Friday night. Both were happy to finish the event and collect championship points though.

Special thanks must go to everyone who helped out the service crew to get the car fixed as quickly as possible on Friday night.

The next round of the championship is the Manx Trophy at the start of August. This being Rob’s home event and also the scene of a dramatic win for him on the event last year in a MKII Escort.

Thanks for continued support goes to: Manx Motorsport Youth Trust, Integrated Capabilities, Manx Telecom, Manx.net, Aon (IOM) Ltd and www.rallycodriver.com

Co-ordinator
RF Motorsport
09/07/03

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