Isle of Man based co-driver Rob Fagg has suffered despair on his last two outings in the 2007 Mitsubishi Evo Challenge. Two early retirements including one on his home round of the series, the RBS International Manx Rally; have made a championship challenge this season a very slim possibility.

Competing alongside young Scottish driver David Bogie in their Oakbank Services sponsored, Pro-Tec Motorsport prepared and KumhoTyres shod Mitsubishi Evo 9, the pair arrived at the Isle of Man event in high spirits. This was to be their first event on tarmac in the Evo 9 and after a successful pre-event test in Ireland the team were hopeful of a top result.

The event got underway in very wet conditions and it was not long before the duo hit trouble, picking up two punctures during the short 1.5 mile opening Port Erin stage. Luckily it was close to the end of the stage and there was no major time loss.

With the rain still coming down the second stage was really to test David’s ability to control the Evo 9 in the slippery conditions. With this the crew decided to ease off to ensure they made it through at such an early stage of the 120 mile event. This proved to be a wrong choice as it seemed their main rivals had chosen to push on and this resulted in them dropping 37 seconds to the quickest Evo, Seb Ling, through the 7 mile test.

With this time loss fresh in their minds, Bogie and Isle of Man Sports Aid Foundation backed Fagg entered the longest stage of the rally at 21 miles knowing they needed to up their game. As the miles clocked up it was obvious that David was building in confidence in the conditions and was dialling into the notes being feed to him by Rob.

About 16 miles into the stage they caught and passed the Group N Subaru of Rob Smith who had started one minute ahead of them. At 18 miles they caught and passed Graham Coffey in his Subaru WRC who was two minutes ahead of them on the road.

Almost immediately after passing the Subaru though the event was all over for Bogie and Fagg.

While braking down from flat in fifth for a tight long corner, the Evo went light at the back end and locked the rear brakes causing the car to slide. As they slid towards a cottage on the outside of the bend David did all he could, and managed in sliding the car safely past the cottage and towards the exit of the corner. Just as the pair thought they had survived with a scare, the rear end snapped and spun the car 180 degrees coming round to impact the front left very heavily with the solid Manx stone wall. The impact removed the nearside wheel and suspension leaving the car immovable and forcing the crew into retirement.

David had learned an important lesson which many have learned before; if you make a mistake the Manx lanes will bite you very hard. He is not the first and will most defiantly not be the last.

Rob was obviously disappointed to have retired from his home event so early on after such a successful run on last year’s event with Rob Watson when the pair finished in 10^th place.

“It is bitterly disappointing to have retired at such an early stage when we came to the event with such high hopes.” commented Rob. “The conditions have certainly played there part but it is the same for everyone out there. David and I were looking for the points as well as the experience on tarmac on what has to be one of the highlights of the season. The fast Manx stages are a real challenge but at the same time very enjoyable to compete over.”

With just three weeks before the next round of the Challenge, the Severn Valley Rally, it was going to be touch and go if the car was to be ready in time. It was not to be and luckily the team were able to secure the hire of the similar spec car from Giles Philips Motorsport.

Bogie arrived at the event from encouraging runs the weekend before on the Jim Clark National and Reivers Rally’s where he achieved a second and fourth placing respectively. This truly showed that the events of the Manx rally were out of his mind and he was ready for business.

Starting the event Bogie and C Tarleton Hodgson & Sons supported Fagg knew they needed to get to the finish and bring home some points towards the 2007 championship challenge. Unfortunately the event was very short run lasting only two miles.

Straight from the start it was obvious that the gravel surface was slippery but with driving style adjusted to the conditions was no problem. But on the approach to a square right corner the heavy car lost traction under braking and carried two much speed into the corner. The result was the car slid wide as David attempted to get round the corner and off the road ending up on its side being held up at the rear end by a tree.

With no spectators to be found the car remained there as the despondent crew looked on as the remainder of the field passed by.

With the car recovered from the ditch, David fired it up and the two proceeded to drive out of the stage to where the Pro-Tec Motorsport mechanics were waiting to inspect the damage. With nothing more than cosmetic damage, it is a shame that there had been no spectators around to pull the crew back onto the road and get them back on their way. That’s rallying as they say.

“This is not what we needed from this event.” explained Rob back at the service area. “The stages looked good for the event and we felt we could put up a good challenge to the leading crews today, but it’s not to be. We will just turn our focus now to the Swansea Bay and look to go there and show the pace we know we are capable of. Winning the Evo Challenge now is not very possible so we will learn the events and look towards next years Challenge.”

The next time the pair will be out is towards the end of July when they will travel to South Wales for the Swansea Bay Rally. Both David and Rob have competed on the stages in the area before on either the Red Dragon Rally or previous years events it self.

The start of April saw Rob received the C Tarleton Hodgson & Sons Scholarship from the Isle of Man Sports Aid Foundation. He would like to thank them for there support and looks forward to repaying them during the season.