Manxman George Collister (Grenaby) will be looking to continue his recent form as he travels to Scotland for the Park Systems Stages this weekend (11^th September).   The event is the penultimate round of the competitive Kumho Clubmans Rally Championship and with the top eight crews separated by only 25 points it still wide open.

Clubman crews will tackle forty-five competitive stage miles over five stages, using some of the finest gravel stages in Scotland during the Newton Stewart based event.

Twenty-three year old Collister’s Motivation Engineering powered Escort MKII has been converted back to gravel spec after its last outing on tarmac at home on the Isle of Man.   Due to the hard nature of the Manx roads the car has gone through an extensive check-up and as a result some vital components renewed.   With this work complete the car is now ready for the battle that lies ahead.

Collister will be reunited with reigning Manx Stage Rally Champion co-driver Rob Fagg (Port Erin) for the event after prior commitments kept them apart on the Manx Trophy Rally last month.   The Manx Motorsport Youth Trust supported pairing will hope to add to their second and third places on the previous rounds and consolidate their championship position, also keeping them in with a shout of the overall and class titles.

“Steve (Parker) did a great job on the Manx and we got a good result.   It will be good to have Rob back in the car and I am hoping that we can get a result that will close the gap to the championship leader.” commented George. “I have not competed in the Scottish forests before so it will be something new, but we have had that for most events this year and we will not worry too much.

Collister and Fagg will also be part of the Isle of Man team which shall compete against those entered from Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland in the newly introduced Nations Challenge.   Teams consist of three vehicles and with only three crews competing from the Isle of Man the team picked itself.   Joining them in the team is the father and son team of Noel and James Kelly in their Mitsubishi Evo 5 and James Vickers, co-driven by Andy Pemberton in a Peugeot 205 GTI.   The winning team will be that which has the lowest cumulative time on stage 2 of the event.

The Park Systems Stages starts at 10:00 on Saturday with the first National B car expect to finish, at the Riverside Car Park, at approximately 14:30.

The team is supported by the following companies: Manx Motorsport Youth Trust, Q&S Motors, Reynolds and Turner, Integrated Capabilities, Motivation Engineering, A.V. Craine & Sons, Manx Gas, Aon (IOM) Ltd, Manx Telecom, www.manx.net, Sign and Design, Cronk Aashen Farm Campsite and www.rallycodriver.co.uk

Photo courtesy of Julian Jones Photography.

Co-ordinator
Robert Fagg Rallying
08/09/2004