Isle of Man Sport Aid recipient Rob Fagg heads to the Scottish Borders this weekend to contest the second round of the Tesco 99 British Rally Championship, the Jim Clark International Rally.  The Isle of Man based co-driver will be alongside MSA British Rally Elite member James Wozencroft in the Dealer Team Suzuki backed Ignis Super 1600. The event based out of Kelso Racecourse, takes place over closed tarmac roads around Berwickshire.

In preparation for the first tarmac round of the championship, Rob and James travelled to Ireland in June to contest the Donegal International Rally. Having never driven the Thompson Suzuki backed Ignis Super 1600 competitively on tarmac before, James and Isle of Man Steam Packet supported Rob were looking to gain vital experience and set-up information on the three day event.

home to prepare for the Jim Clark Rally.

This event last year was James first experience of closed road rallying, but it did not show as he and Rob continued there domination of the BRC Stars of the Future Championship with a convincing victory. That though was in a 1400 Ignis, this time they will have to tame the Super 1600 version if they want to challenge for honours on the fast challenging tarmac roads that make up this unique event.

James and Rob competing in Donegal

Back in May the young pairing contested the opening round of the Championship, the Pirelli International Rally. As they were still getting used to the new car, the plan was to build up the pace throughout the event and get comfortable with the Ignis. This is how it went and despite spending a long period of time in one of Kielders famous ditches, they would complete the Super 1600 podium in third place.

But that’s the past and the Jim Clark poses the next challenge ahead of them when they will resume battle with former works Ford driver Roman Kresta, leading JWRC driver and team mate Guy Wilks and reigning BRC Production Champion Barry Clark to mention a few. Confidence is high though going into the event after the success of Donegal.

“I think it was the right decision for us to contest Donegal this year” explained Rob. “The time we got in the car on tarmac will be a hugh benefit to us ahead of the next three roads of the championship. We were able to try different suspension set-ups and learn a lot about the car during the event. We both now hope that we can put together a good run on the Jim Clark and add to the points we score on the Pirelli.”

The rally gets underway on Friday afternoon with the cars leaving Kelso Square after an autograph session for fans at 15.00. The cars then tackle a challenging diversity of tarmac stages before finishing back in Kelso Square on Saturday afternoon with the first cars expected to finish at 17.30.

Rob is supported in 2006 by the Isle of Man Sports Aid Foundation, Isle of Man Steam Packet Company and www.Mexperience.com

Dealer Team Suzuki are supported by Suzuki GB, Suzuki Finance, Shell, Dunlop Tyres, Thompson Suzuki (Bedford) and AAT.

Media
05/07/2006