Twenty-three year old Manxman George Collister (Grenaby) scored maximum points on the latest and penultimate round of the Kumho Tyres Clubmans Championship last Saturday (11^th September),   the Newton Stewart based Park Systems Stages Rally.

The Q&S Motors backed driver took the lead on stage two and built on this until the end of the event.   The twenty-five points scored on the event have consolidated his position in third place in the championship and kept him in the running for the overall title.
 

Collister and his fellow MMYT recipient, Integrated Capabilities/Manx Gas supported co-driver Rob Fagg (Port Erin), knew that they could not afford one of their now all too customary slow starts on this event.   With this in their minds they posted the second fastest Kumho time on the 4.5-mile Borgan stage to the flying Andy Gwynne.  

On the road section to stage 2 in became obvious that there was a problem with the

steering on the DUKE Video backed Motivation Engineering Escort MKII.   Luckily with emergency service available they were able to locate the problem to the left hand track rod end.   With the problem resolved the crew continued on to tackle the 14-mile Glentrool Stage.

Stage 2 started well, but just as the young Manx crew was getting into a good rhythm they caught the car in front of them, who had been off the road early in the stage.   As they tried to recover some of the time they had lost, they seemed unawares of the Collister Rallying prepared car behind and it was not until the Manx crew’s fellow Kumho competitors Alistair Adams and Andy Ballantyne who had retired in the stage, pointed it out to them, that they pulled over and let the Manx lads passed.   Despite this hold up Collister regained his composure and still posted the fastest Kumho time over the stage.   It was also at this point they would take control of the event after early pace setter Gwynne encountered ignition problems and dropped well down the order.

On arrival at the service halt, Collister was in a confident mood. 

“I knew I had to be on the pace from the word go on this event, and it seems to have gone right over the opening two stages” explained George, “Rob’s been round and get the times and it looks like we have got a 20 second lead over Tim (Pearcey), I really enjoyed those stages and looking forward to the final 3, the car feels great.”

With his Kumho Tyres shod MKII all checked and re-fuelled, the 2003 Manx Young Driver of the Year set second fastest Kumho times over stages three and four to the recovering Andy Gwynne.   The gap to second though had been extend to 32.8 seconds, but it was know Alan McDowall in second with Pearcey dropping to 4^th, Potter also passing the Yorkshire man.

At this finish back in Newton Stewart in was confirmed what the Manx pair already knew, they had won the fifth round of the Clubmans Championship and kept their championship dream alive.   Championship leader prior to the event, McDowall, finished second, 32.4 seconds back but maintained his lead in the championship after scoring on every round.   Despite James Potter’s third position, it was not enough to keep him in the title race which now comes down to four crews.   In the drivers championship the winner will come from McDowall, Pearcey, Collister and Steve Magson, while the co-drivers will be between the driver’s respective navigators, Gavin Heseltine, Mick Johnson, Fagg and Geoff Atkinson.

“What a day, the event has gone so well for us.   We knew that a good result would keep us in the championship race and we have certainly done that.” commented George, “Rob has been superb on the notes as ever and pushed me on throughout the day, a great performance from him and that has enabled me to produce some of my best driving of the year.”

The evenings presentation saw the delighted Manx crew collect some unexpected awards, 1^st Rear Wheel Drive and 1^st Ford to add to their 1^st in Class and 1^st Kumho Overall.   As part of the Isle of Man team, they won the Nations challenge which was decided by adding together the times posted by the three crews making up the team over stage 2.   Other members of the team were father and son Noel and James Kelly in there Mitsubishi Evo 6 and James Vickers and co-driver Andrew Pemberton in their Peugeot 205.

George and Rob would like to personally thank Peter Duke of DUKE Video.   After the young Manx crew was let down late last week by an un-named sponsor, Peter stepped in and provided them with a set of Kumho tyres which put them on level terms with the competition.

The final round of the Kumho Tyres Clubman Championship is the Shrewsbury based Bulldog Rally which takes place on the 23^rd October.

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, XKO (IOM), www.manx.net, Sign and Design, Cronk Aashen Farm Campsite, Kumho Tyres and www.rallycodriver.co.uk 

Co-ordinator
Robert Fagg Rallying
14/09/2004