After the opening two stages of the event Pearcey and Isle of Man Sports Aid Foundation recipient Fagg were leading Group N by 12 seconds from closest rival Tristan Pye. The conditions on the stages were proving to be some of the most challenging conditions seen in Yorkshire but despite this they knew they had to maintain a quick pace with Pye and John Bannister close behind. An overshoot on stage 3 though cost them around 15 seconds and saw Pye move ahead of them in the battle for class honours.

Disaster was to strike though on the very next stage and put an end to their challenge. As they left the start line on the 5 mile Dalby stage, a front driveshaft broke leaving the Evo 6 only rear wheel drive and becoming a big handful in the slippery conditions. Struggling through the stage they would drop around a minute to the their rivals and baring problems for them the class win was now out of reach and dropped them to 17th overall.

Over the final three stages of the 45 mile event, the crew would post respectable times to fight there way back up the leaderboard to 11th. At the finish the Isle of Man Bank Scholarship backed Rob appeared to be happy with the end result.

"Today has been a really test with the conditions we experienced on the stages. Tim has driven well today and the MSR Motorsport team have done a fine job during the day. It was a bitter blow when we had the driveshaft problem, but that's the nature of the sport. It's been a good event though and hopefully I will get the opportunity to team up with Tim and the MSR team again in the future.

After a short return to the island Rob leaves again on Friday morning to contest the Astra Stages National Rally this Saturday. He will team up with Shropshire rally star James Wozencroft for their first competitive outing of 2006. The 2005 British Rally Championship Stars of the Future winners are using the 70 mile event as a shakedown prior to contesting the Tesco 99 Octane British Rally Championship starting in May.

The young pairing shall pilot the Dealer Team Suzuki Ignis Super 1600 that they used at the end of the 2005 season on the Tempest International Rally. On that occasion they finished in 11th overall.

"We're using the weekends event as a shakedown prior to the start of the BRC and also to get some time in the car. The two Stars cars are on this event as there first round of the championship and so it made sense to enter", commented Rob. "It's going to be good to get back out with James and hopefully experiment with car set-up and at the same time learn more about the car."

Rob is supported in 2006 by the Isle of Man Sports Council, Isle of Man Bank Scholarship and www.Mexperience.com

Media
28/03/2006