Isle of Man Sports Aid Foundation recipient Rob Fagg opened his 2006 Tesco 99 Octane British Rally Championship (BRC) campaign last weekend on the Pirelli International Rally with a podium position in the Super 1600 class despite a visit into one of Kielders famous ditches

Competing with James Wozencroft in the Dealer Team Suzuki Ignis S1600, the 2005 BRC Stars of the Future Champions were looking to show a continued improvement throughout the event as they looked to get the best from there new machine.

With former Ford WRC driver Roman Kresta, Suzuki JWRC driver Guy Wilks and reigning BRC Production Champion Barry Clark the main competition, it was always going to be a tough event for the young crew amongst more experienced rivals.

The opening stage was just under 9 miles and the Suzuki Finance backed crew would finish the stage 4^th quickest in S1600, 27 seconds off team-mate and early leader Wilks. A clean run through the second stage of the event resulted in a time just 4.6 seconds behind Clark, boosting confidence within in the car. Clark then picked up a puncture in the next, allowing Wozencroft and Fagg to move ahead and into second in S1600 after the retirement of Kresta.

On reaching service after the short blast around the Pirelli P-Zero stage, MSA British Rally Elite member Wozencroft was happy with the way things were going.

James and Rob through the water splash on the P-Zero stage

crew were about to hit problems themselves.

Around 3 miles into the 9 mile Kershope stage, the Dunlop shod Ignis jumped out of the ruts and saw the rear of the car slide into a ditch on the outside of the corner. Despite valiant attempts by the crew to bring the car back onto the road they were in vain. It was only after 25 minutes and a run by Wozencroft to find spectators to help that they were on there way again.

Despite reaching the next stage within the allocated time, it was decided to change the front tyres which were wrecked from attempts to get back on the road after their excursion, resulting in them checking in three minutes late and receiving 30 seconds of penalties.

With nothing to gain after the massive time loss the priority now was to ensure they reached the finish and get points on the board. With a healthy cushion over 4^th placed S1600 crew Darren Gass and Neil Shanks, who were running under Super Rally rules, James and Rob drove cleanly to reach the finish in 27^th place Overall and 3^rd in the S1600 class.

At the finish, Isle of Man Steam Packet Scholarship recipient Fagg was content with third place and the 10 points associated with it.

“I think if you had said we would finish third at the start of the event we would have been more than happy.” commented Rob, “We came here this weekend with a plan to finish and get points on the board and we have achieved this, setting some respectable times on the way. Guy (Wilks, Ignis) was in a league of his own after Roman (Kresta, Fiesta) retired, on leg 1 we were in a battle with Barry Clark, 20 seconds separating us at the end of the day. Any hope of challenging him though on the second day was lost when we slid of the road on Stage 12 into a ditch where we remained for 25 minutes. After that we were just making sure we got to the finish.”

Barry Clark picked up maximum points after a late retirement from Guy Wilks with a head gasket failure. Wilks was still classified after returning the car to Parc Ferme, taking full advantage of the new Super Rally rules.

The next planned outing for Rob is alongside Wozencroft again in the Ignis S1600 on the three day Donegal International Rally starting on the 15^th June. The event is being used a tarmac test, with the next three rounds of the BRC being tarmac events.

Media
19/05/2006