Last weekend saw the final round of the A.V. Craine & Sons Manx Stage Rally Championship take place with the running of the DMC Christmas Stages.   The event taking place on the disused airfield at Jurby where the crews would tackle around 40 miles of rallying.  

The event saw Manx Motorsport Youth Trust backed Rob return to the passenger seat alongside Manx Championship driver George Collister driving his Motivation backed Astra powered MKII Escort.   Rob entered the final round in a three way battle for the Overall Title .

To claim the title Rob needed to finish ahead of series leader Ian Baillie who was back alongside Rudi Bredencamp for the event.   The Integrated Capabilities backed co-driver also needed to be within eight places of Maurice Snell competing with business partner Russell Millward who was involved in the drivers battle.

Saturday arrived and with it damp conditions which provided the crews with a slightly more slippery stage than expected.   Georges driving ability was called into action on more than one occasion in the first half of the event with the tyres going off midway through the high speed stages.

Midway through the event though and Rob was lying in prime position to take the title with almost a one minute cushion over Baillie and sitting two places behind Snell.   The second stage of the afternoon though saw drama as Bredencamp had to retire after loosing a wheel removing Baillie from the event also, and leaving Rob needing a steady run to the end.   Although they could not back off altogether as Snell still had the outside chance if he dropped back far enough.

The final two stages proved quite nerve racking for Rob as he explains.

"I have been listening to the car more than I have ever done before over those final two stages, every noise puts a doubt in you mind" explained Rob "It really was such a relief to cross the finish of the final stage and pull into the final control, George drove really well today and showed some great car control".

The pairing ended the event 4th overall and picked up the class victory.   They added that result to the 4th they collected on the previous round and 3rd on round four.   

With the points scored on the event Rob picked up the A.V. Craine & Sons Manx Stage Rally Championship Co-drivers crown, the result also guaranteed George the Class D Championship.   Not a bad end to the season for one of the up and coming young Manx crews.

Thanks for continued support goes to: Motivation Engineering, Manx Motorsport Youth Trust, Integrated Capabilities, Q&S Motors, Reynolds and Turner, Aon (IOM) Ltd, Cronk Aashen Farm Campsite, Tim Shearman, Sign and Design, Manx.net, Manx Telecom, and www.rallycodriver.co.uk

Co-ordinator
RF Motorsport
30/12/03