Evans dominates on Manx

 Melvyn_Manx_2011

Melvyn Evans on the Manx Telecom Rally

Melvyn Evans took a convincing win on the recent Manx Telecom rally with a winning margin of almost four minutes in his Subaru Impreza WRC ahead of local driver Nigel Cannell.

     Paul Bird and Kirsty Riddick however took the early rally lead on the five stages of Friday night opening a lead of almost thirty seconds ahead of Melvyn with Geroge Collister a further three seconds adrift in third. The opening stage of Saturday morning though would see Melvyn and co-driver Patrick Walsh start their fightback with a fastest time and clawing nine seconds of their deficit to Bird/Riddick on a stage just under nine miles long. Another fastest stage time on SS7 saw Evans/Walsh take the lead after rally leader Paul Bird exited the event after an accident on the stage which saw the Focus WRC unable to continue. The stage would also claim Damien Cole, retiring from third overall in the event with mechanical problems. Evans/Walsh now led the event with a healthy lead of almost two minutes with seven stages remaining allowing the pair to cruise to a comfortable victory. However, they continued the event setting a further four fastest stage times on the remaining seven only backing off on the final three stages ending the event almost four minutes ahead of second place.

     Dylan Davies and Dale Furniss continued their BTRDA season on the Somerset Stages based in Minehead. A new event for both, the stages would prove another step on getting to grips with the new car not only on gravel but also on tarmac as the event uses the Porlock Toll road twice on the rally. Seeded at car 28, the pairing continued their progression with the Subaru Impreza finishing an excellent 15th o/a and 6th in class. Anthony Litchfield, co-driving for Christian South in a Ford Fiesta ST, finished 77th O/a and third in class N3. Thomas Lloyd finished 86th O/a and second in class 1.4C on his first forestry event with fellow first timer Ashley Hogan in his Puegeot 106 Rallye.

     Iwan Mayes producedanother fine performance on the Bob Shaw Memorial Rally held at Talbenny when he finished 8th o/a and first in class in his Ford Escort Mk2. Tomas Davies and John Dalton headed over to the Emerald Isle to compete on two seperate events in the month of April. John Dalton finished an excellent 4th O/a, taking the class victory in his Darrian T90 GTR on the Circuit of Ireland whilst Tomas Davies finished 16th o/a and 5th in class 13 on the Carlow Stages Rally.