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2011/05 - Manx National Rally (0 images) - created by Adge on 26/05/2011 at 17:40:00
Last weekend team Adgespeed returned from the Isle of Man in 1 piece after their 1st attempt at this major British Rally. Set over the infamous closed public roads of the Island with stages ranging from town centres, very narrow bumpy lanes, to flat out wide A roads, the rally had every type of tarmac road you could get and then you throw in the weather just to make things interesting.

The rally started on the Friday night in Port Erin with a short stage through the town centre and out into the countryside. With rain threatening Adrian decided to go on wets, which was the wrong choice as the rain held off for the 1st three stages before the 1st service. However the team ended the 1st stage with a puncture which destroyed the tyre causing the loss of some road time changing it.

Having had to change the tyre Adrian and Mark had dropped down the order slightly, this caused problems on stage 3 when they caught the car in front on a chicane which had stalled causing a loss of 20 seconds getting round the stricken crew. After a steady run through the next 2 stages Adrian and Mark arrived at the 1st service halt. With the weather looking very heavy and night falling but still dry, the team went for intermediate tyres for the 2nd loop of stages, but as they were about to leave the heavens opened, with hardly being able to see as the rain was so heavy Adrian and Mark took no chances and got through the stage as quickly as possible. The rain eased slightly for the next stage and the crew arrived back at Douglas for the overnight halt and 27th overall.

For the 2nd day the weather was dry, but with some stages in the mountains, that might not be the case so Adrian decided to stick with intermediates, which proved to be a good choice due to the mixed conditions.

A good run through the 1st stage of the morning Paper Mill 1 and then on the next stage Kella 1 a turbo pipe came off resulting a loss of over 30 seconds, Adrian managed to fix it but it came off again within 100 yds of the next stage start losing over 1 minute this time.

Back at service the offending pipe was fixed properly and Adrian and Mark set off for the next loop of 3 stages, a good run through these stages and Adrian and Mark had moved up to 21st o/a.

On returning to the final service the heavens opened and wets were the order of the day for the final 3 stages. A safe run through due to the conditions as it would have been impossible to gain that much time to greatly improve their o/a position, however they did gain 1 place to finish 20th o/a.

Satisfied to have finished in the top 20 with the car in one piece as having never rallied on the island before, hopefully they have gained some experience for a return next year.