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Manx Trophy Rally - 10-12 Sept '98

Posted: September 15, 1998 4:06 PM - 7729 Hits


Round 5 1998 Toshiba Equium Tarmac Championship

Uel Williamson with Gleen Wilson on the notes brought his Opel engined Mark I Escort to first overall on a hard fought MANX Trophy Rally. The Swedish ladies crew of Pernilla Walfridsson/Ulrika Mattsson in a Group N Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV finished a close second, and local hero and last years winner Shaun Fox third in a Nova.

Posted: September 15, 1998 4:06 PM

  • Route
    The Trophy rally covered 19 special stages, stages 2-4 and 6-21 of the Manx International Rally. The rally started on Friday night with the Port Soderick stage just outside Douglas, followed by 2 runs at Castletown. Service followed behind the Grandstand.
    Leg 2 the longest of the rally started at 11:00 am with a short Service at the Grandstand and moved up towards St. Johns on the west of the island. There was service after every 2 stages in either St. Johns or Jurby airport. The day finished off with a run through Rasmey in the dark.
    The final Leg consisted of 4 stages for the trophy event, before a 2:00 finish in Douglas.

    World rally style rules were used for service on this event, with no chase cars allowed and no work by anyone other than the crew on the cars between stages. A 20 or 45 minute service was given after every 2/3 stages.

  • Cars
    The Irish and local manx drivers were joined by the West Euro Cup crews from Europe. One of the most usual rally cars I have ever seen was entered by a French crew, a Gp A Opel Omega 3000!

  • Rally
    Before the event started favourite for the event and local man Ian (Hippy) Corkhill destroyed his beautiful Metro on the morning test stage. In wet conditions the Car went out of controll on one of the famous cattle grids. Co-driver Howard Allison was shaken but ok, but Corkhill needed to be cut out and was flown to hospital. We wish him a speedy recovery.

    Full Entry List Results and Stage Times

    The event began in Darkness at 9:00pm on Thurday night with SS2 of the main event. Port Soderick begin the first stage for the historic and trophy sections. Starting just outside Douglas it followed the fast but slippery coast road to Castletown, a total of 6.32 miles. Williamson set the fastest time, of 6:45, 1 up on Ollie O'Donovan/Paul McCann in the Gp A Astra and 3 up on the surprise crew of the event Pernilla Walfridsson and Ulrika Mattsson. Local hero Shaun Fox blasted in a 4th fastest time, driving the rally without pace notes!. Kieran O'Neill who lead last years event before crashing out finished the stage on 7:01, not helped by the co-drivers light packing up, the intercom not working due to lose connection to the in-car camera and a small spin!

    The all Kerry crew of Thomas Randles/Diarmuid Lynch in the 2.4ltr Dyno Rod Escort were down in 15th place, finding the fast roads of the Isle of Man a lot different to those found in Ireland. West Cork driver Colin Kingston with Hugh Giles on the notes took the stages like a duck to water clocking 7:41 in their 1.3 Swift engined Escort. Damien Hagan/Gregory McQuillan in their Twin Cam Corrolla were also easing themselves in to lie 23rd overnight and 4th in class.

    2 trips around the famous Castletown stage followed. The trophy event really put on a show in the greasy conditions. The stage starts on the promenade, enters the harbour area, goes 90 left over the bridge and 90 left again up the other side of the habour and into the Square. The cars then must go around the monument, go around past the fire station and finish just pass the local school - length 1.26 miles. A stand for viewing was set up in the square with live commentary.
    Top Marks went to Kieran O'Neill in the Group Motors Kadett. After rounding the first 90 left he set the car into a slide which lasted through the 90 left on the other side of the bridge and halfway up the harbour! Like every RWD car he ended up having a spin trying to go around the monument. Despite heading the sandbank after rounding the monument, Ollie O'Donovan set fastest time to move into a 3 seconds lead. He added another second on his final run to go into a four second over night lead. Colin Kingston and Hugh Giles' rally ended in spectacular style when on their second run over the stage they went backward though a wall at the end of the stage. Sean Keenan/Stephen O'Riordan were up to 11th and Sean McArdle 17th.

    
    End of Leg One 1
     1 Ollie O'Donovan/Paul McCann (Opel Astra GSI).......0:09:58 
     2 Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson (Escort Mk I 2.0)......0:10:02 
     3 Pernilla Walfridsson/Ulrika Mattsson (Mit. Evo IV).0:10:07 
     4 Shaun Fox/Anton Cashen (Vauxhall Nova).............0:10:17 
     5 Dan McCartan/Michael McElwee (Mitsubishi Evo V)....0:10:19 
     6 Kieran O'Neill/Paul Nagle (Opel Kadett C GTE)......0:10:25 
     7 Nigel Hicklin/Sam McMullan (Vauxhall Corsa GSI)....0:10:28 
     8 Richard Batey/Nigel Hinds (Peugeot 205 GTI)........0:10:37 
     9 James Quirk/Edwin Kennaugh (Vauxhall Nova GSI).....0:10:39 
    10 Sean Keenan/Stephen O'Riordan (Opel Astra GSI).....0:10:43
    
    
    Day 2 started with a classic 21 and half mile stage. The stage had everything - fast open main roads, tight/rough narrow lanes with grass down the middle, a ford, two: one and half mile straights. Ollie O'Donovan probably wished he hadn't got out of bed. 3 miles into the stage the rear beam broke. This resulted in an off toward the end of the stage dropping him to eight. Dan McCartan/Michael McElwee set fastest time of 19:43 with Kieran O'Neill/Paul Nagle on 19:48 - this was despite O'Neill putting intermediates on the car when a Slick might have been more suitable. More importantly O'Neill took 4 seconds of Williamson.
    Kieran O'Neill needed to beat Uel Williamson to get ahead in Class 11 in the Toshiba Equim Tarmac Championship, but above all he need to finish this event and he had missed the Circuit and had a non finish in Donegal. Tom Randles set a time of 20:16 to move to 11th. For Gary Watson with Stevie Farr on the notes on their 1st outing in the twin cam Escort the rally came to sudden end, after passing a few cars and getting used to the car about 4 miles from the end a half shaft let go, soon afterwards the diff cried enough and that was that.The stage was followed by 10 mile stage before service at St. John's.

    McCartan again set fastest time with 9 mins flat to move into a one second lead. Next up was Kieran O'Neill on 9:03, taking 6 seconds out of Williamson. 14 seconds now covered Dan McCartan in first to O'Neill in 4th! O'Donovan in his re-arranged Astra dropped 2 more minutes to lie 14. The car never handled (or looked) right again and he pulled out at last service of the day back in Douglas. Most Irish crews were complaining of the shear amount of chicanes and bales etc on the stages. Kieran O'Neill's Kadett showing signs of a brush with one or 2 on the co-drivers door.

    2 more stages Ballagyr 1 at 9 miles and an 11 mile stage The Curraghs 1 brought the cars to service at Jurby Air Field. Ballagyr was cancelled after a car in the international rally blocked the stage. It was Williamson who set the pace on SS9 with a time of 10:55, with Walfridsson one second behind. This gave Williamson the lead with the Swedish Ladies in second. SS10 was the first run up the famous Thot-y-will. Williamson devastated everyone with a time of 4:02 for the 4.1 miles. Walfridsson, McCartan and O'Neill could all "only" manage 4:07. With SS11 canceled the crews went back to service, where the talk was now of tyre choice - the weather was very localised and with no service/chase cars allowed between stages the crews had to make a choice for 2 stages. With a 21 mile stage starting the loop of stages tyre choice was never more important. The first few cars got through the stage on dry weather, but for everyone else the last few miles were wet. Williamson again set fastest time, 4 seconds faster than the amazing Shaun Fox who finished the stage on 20:15 in his 1400cc Nova. Kieran O'Neill dropped 13 seconds to Williamson after slipping on the wet shiny surface on slicks when it rained and getting a puncture with 3 miles to go. However they moved up to third when Pernilla Walfridsson/Ulrika Mattsson put their Mitsubishi off the road for over a minute. Despite the setback on the previous stage O'Neill set fastest time on the following stage before Service again in St.Johns. 2 more fastest times bought the Kadett to within 2 seconds of McCartan's second place, but Williamson still had 40 seconds in hand over McCartan. Not to be out done Walfridsson blasted in a time 10 seconds faster than anyone else on SS15. O'Neill/Nagle moved ahead of McCartan but lost a few seconds to Williamson. Randles started to show the potential of his car with third fastest on the stage, but was now over 4 mins off the lead.
    Williamson had trouble though: On the final jump just before the finish of the stage he landed heavily and damaged the gearbox. His service crew managed a record change to keep their man on the road. Damien Hagan/Gregory McQuillan had worked their way up to up to 15th overall and 2nd in class after a largely trouble free day, but were over 4 minutes behind the class leaders, the local crew of James Quirk/Edwin Kennaugh in a Nova. Just like home, local knowledge can be hard to beat!

    2 stages remained before the overnight halt, both to be tackled in the dark: the second run over Tolt-y-will and SS17 the spectator stage around Ramsey town. On SS16 Tolt-y-will, Williamson set the fastest time of 4:13 one up on Walfridsson with Shaun Fox an amazing 4:15 in the little Nova. McCartan did enough to take back second from Kieran O'Neill, the Group Motors crew dropped time after the intercom packed up. The final stage of the night was in Ramsey, Walfridsson set the fastest time, but the RWD brigade again put on a show.
    In fact the fastest car through the speed trap on the stage was Kieran O'Neill with 55 mph, the Meganes in the main event could only manage 52mph!

    After the long days rallying Sean Keenan was cataching Tom Randles for 6th place and Sean McArdle had worked his way into top ten.

    
    Eng of Leg 2
     1 Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson (Escort Mk I 2.0)......1:49:59 
     2 Dan McCartan/Michael McElwee (Mit. Evo V)..........1:50:42 
     3 Kieran O'Neill/Paul Nagle (Opel Kadett C GTE)......1:50:49 
     4 Pernilla Walfridsson/Ulrika Mattsson (Mit.Evo IV)..1:51:15 
     5 Shaun Fox/Anton Cashen (Vauxhall Nova).............1:51:26 
     6 Thomas Randles/Diarmuid Lynch (Ford Escort 2.4)....1:53:31
     7 Sean McArdle/Philip Smith (Escort G3)..............1:56:08 
     8 Sean Keenan/Stephen O'Riordan (Opel Astra GSI).....1:56:14 
     9 Mark Tucker/Simon Osborne (Ford Escort 2.0)........1:58:14 
    10 David Craine/Simon Trenholme (Escort RS Cosworth)..1:58:31 
    
    
    4 stages remained for the trophy event on the final day. Saturday morning started dry but over cast. While the main rally had a settled look at this stage, the trophy rally was far from over. Even Kieran O'Neill and Uel Williamson who were battling for class 11 were going for glory! The first stage of the day Glenville was a classic 13.4 mile test, starting at the Grandstand in Douglas, up to Brandywell cottage, down the hairpin left and finishing with the famous Druidale section.

    O'Neill/Nagle went at the stage flat from the start. Co-driver Paul Nagle joked that morning "....if we go off it will be a plane crash"..!" By Brandywell they was over 20 seconds up on everyone, but future down the road coming into the square left before the dip O'Neill ran wide on gravel pulled out by the main event. He hit a concrete post on the outside of the corner with the back wheel and ended up off the road in a dyke on the left hand side. It took spectators over 4 minutes to get the car back on the road. Damage was slight but any change of staying in the battle for the lead was gone. And what a battle it was turning out to be. Pernilla Walfridsson set fastest time of 13:15, Dan McCartan next on 13:29 and Williamson on 14:04. Randles despite having to pass O'Neill as he left his crash site managed 14:08. Sean Keenan/Stephen O'Riordan also had a close call on the stage, on a very slippery right hander which caught out alot of the international they had a huge spin, but spectators had them back on the road in no time. However Sean McArdle/Philip Smith closed the Gap on the Astra as the day when on to be only 17 seconds behind at the end.

    After final service 3 stages remained for the trophy section, Jurby East a very fast 10 mile stage, SS20 Cornaa, a new stage and the worst of the rally, very tight and narrow with plenty tight downhill sections and the final test Baldhoon, starting with a very tight section and finishing with a very fast section.

    McCartan set fastest time to take the lead by 4 seconds after SS19, Jurby East, only to roll the white Evo V on a downhill section on the next stage. Damage was limted to a broken windscreen and a dented roof but the car was going no future. Williamson also hit his car but added ten seconds to his lead over the Swedish crew, the Lancer having gear selection problems. O'Neill/Nagle had backed off slighty at this stage but was still taking chucks out of Tom Randles/Diarmuid Lynch in front of them. After th "off" on SS18 the Kadett was over a min behind the 2.4 Escort, but he finished the rally less than half a minute behind.

    
    Final Results 
     1 Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson (Escort Mk I 2.0)......2:27:57 
     2 Pernilla Walfridsson/Ulrika Mattsson (Mit.Evo IV)..2:28:13 
     3 Shaun Fox/Anton Cashen (Vauxhall Nova).............2:29:56 
     4 Thomas Randles/Diarmuid Lynch (Ford Escort 2.4)....2:32:25 
     5 Kieran O'Neill/Paul Nagle (Opel Kadett C GTE)......2:32:54 
     6 Sean Keenan/Stephen O'Riordan (Opel Astra GSI).....2:35:31 
     7 Sean McArdle/Philip Smith (Escort G3)..............2:35:48 
     8 Richard Batey/Nigel Hinds (Peugeot 205 GTI)........2:36:10 
     9 David Craine/Simon Trenholme (Escort RS Cosworth)..2:39:12 
    10 Sean Crellin/Sheila Thomson (Suzuki Swift GTI).....2:39:14 
    
    12 Damien Hagan/Gregory McQuillan (Corolla Twin Cam)..2:43:45 
    
    16 Alyn Spiers/Angela Straney (Suzuki Swift GTI)......2:45:46 
    17 Billy Gamble/Clarence McKeown (Suzuki Swift GTI)...2:47:02
    
    19 Martin Doherty/Shaun Lafferty (Vauxhall Nova)......2:47:43 
    20 Michael Murray/Richard Skinner (Nissan Sunny GTI)..2:48:30 
    
    Leaders SS2 Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson, 
    SS3-4 Ollie O'Donovan/Paul McCann,
    SS6 Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson 
    SS7-8 Dan McCartan/Michael McElwee
    SS9-18 Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson 
    SS19 Dan McCartan/Michael McElwee
    SS20-21 Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson
    
    Stage winners
     SS2 - Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson
     SS3 - Ollie O'Donovan/Paul McCann
     SS4 - Ollie O'Donovan/Paul McCann
    
     SS6 - Dan McCartan/Michael McElwee
     SS7 - Dan McCartan/Michael McElwee
     SS8 - Cancelled
     SS9 - Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson
    SS10 - Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson
    SS11 - Cancelled
    SS12 - Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson
    SS13 - Kieran O'Neill/Paul Nagle
    SS14 - Kieran O'Neill/Paul Nagle
    SS15 - Kieran O'Neill/Paul Nagle
    SS16 - Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson
    SS17 - Pernilla Walfridsson/Ulrika Mattsson
    
    SS18 - Pernilla Walfridsson/Ulrika Mattsson
    SS19 - Dan McCartan/Michael McElwee
    SS20 - Uel Williamson/Glenn Wilson
    SS21 - Pernilla Walfridsson/Ulrika Mattsson
    
    
    Full Entry List Results and Stage Times

    Liam O'Callghan took max. Toshiba Eqiuim Tarmac Championship points to move into third place in the championship. Derek McGarrity won GpN in the Irish Tarmac Championship after finishing second in Group N on in the International event.

    
    Results - International Rally
      1 Martin Rowe/Derek Ringer (Renault Megane Maxi)....3:13:01 
      2 Tapio Laukkanen/Kaj Lindstrom (Megane Maxi).......3:16:57 
      3 David Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Subaru Impreza WRX)...3:21:39 
      4 Jarmo Kytolehto/Arto Kapanen (Astra Kit Car)......3:22:53 
      5 Liam O'Callaghan/Steve Harris (Ford Escort Maxi)..3:24:45 
      6 Alister McRae/David Senior (Golf Kit Car).........3:26:05 
      7 Barbara Armstrong/John Richardson (SEAT Ibiza E2).3:26:34 
      8 Derek McGarrity/Victor Carrothers (Mit. EVO V)....3:29:22 
      9 Stephanie & Rachael Simmonite (Escort Kit Car)....3:30:34 
     10 Robert Woodside/Allan Harryman (Mit. EVO IV)......3:30:45 
    
    
     14 Niall McShea/Mark Cassidy (Mit. Lancer EVO V).....3:33:08
    
    
    Full Entry List Results and Stage Times

  • Topics: Rally Isle of Man 

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