Manxman George Collister (Grenaby) achieved his goal of a podium position on the Rally of Kent last weekend. The 23 year old picked up valuable points to get his ANCRO Clubman’s Championship campaign off the mark on the Ashford based event.

Competing in the 4Hire-iom.com powered Collister Rallying Escort MKII, Collister and Isle of Man Bank Scholarship recipient co-driver Rob Fagg (Port Erin) arrived for the second round of the championship with high hopes after their non scoring performance on the snowy opening round. They were hampered by running first on the road on that occasion, acting as a snow plough for the following crews.

The Manx crew started the event as they intended, putting in quick clean runs through the opening stages. The only moment was on stage 2 when Collister carried a lot of speed into a double tightening corner and this saw them leave the road loosing around 10 seconds in the process. At the first service halt Collister and Fagg held on to fifth place amongst the ANCRO runners, although it was very close with just 9 seconds covering the top five.

Stage 5 saw the retirement of early pace setter Steve Finch moving Collister up to fourth. Two stages later round one winner and fifth placed James Metcalfe retired after rolling his Escort. The short stages did not allow anyone to make significant time gains on any of the leading competitors, each stage being within 5 seconds of each other. Good times though saw the Motivation Engineering supported crew move up to third as they reached second service.

With joint fastest time on stage 9 and second fastest on the remaining three they consolidated their third position but just fell 3 seconds short of winner Allan McDowall (Opel Kadett) and 2 of second placed Alistair Adams (Escort MKII) in what must have been one of the closest events in the history of the championship. Local man James Potter (Escort MKII) rounded out the top four, 8 seconds behind Collister and Fagg.

’The main objective of the weekend was to get points on the board’ explain George. “After the result in Yorkshire we knew we couldn’t afford not to score again. A podium placing was not going to be beyond us and so that’s what we went for. As with last year, the competition was close and for the top three to be separated by just 3 seconds after 45 competitive miles, it just show the quality of the competition. I am looking forward to the next round in Wales and hope to carry on where I left off today.”

Collister Rallying is supported in 2005 by the Manx Motorsport Youth Trust, Motivation Engineering, 4WD & Van Centre (4hire-iom.com), Reynolds and Turner, Isle of Man Bank, Isle of Man Sports Foundation, Integrated Capabilities, Cronk Aashen Farm Campsite, Mexperience.co.uk and Sign and Design.

Collister now turns his attentions back to home where he will prepare his Escort for the ROUSH Manx National Rally in May. Rob will contest the event also but prior to that he will be back in action on the North Humberside Forest Stages as part of his BTRDA Silkolene 1400 Championship campaign.

Robert Fagg
23/03/2005