MANX RALLY May 2023

The Manx Rally this year took place over Friday and Saturday 12th/13th May, with a massive entry of 139 crews including 8 in classic Minis. There were 4 legs, 2 on Friday the second being in the dark, and 2 daylight legs on Saturday, altogether 17 closed road stages with a total of 135 competitive miles.(Counting for 2 rounds of the HRCR Stage Masters Championship). Only one day,Thursday, was allowed to recce the stages and with scrutineering on the same day time was tight. This year I had a new co-driver Will Brown from my local car club in Kings Lynn who was having his first taste of pacenote stage rallies, but after some pre rally practice he did a brilliant job on the event. The Manx was also to be my last rally before retirement and also having decided to put 277 BRX up for sale after the event it was a very emotional journey for me.

The amazing 277 BRX on its way to scrutineering on Thursday

The mini crews were all seeded together from 121 to 133 and we were all servicing in the same location and as usual all helping each other. We started at 123 behind Steve Higgins at 121 and Andrew o’Hanlon at 122. Our Japanese friends had made the trip from Yokohama with Shinobu and Hiroko Kitani at 131, just to compete on their favourite event. The weather on Friday was warm with brilliant sunshine after some torrential rain the day before in some parts of the island which left standing water in places to catch out the unwary. Friday Leg1 Having done stage 1 Port Vaaish, repeated as stage 2 ,on a previous trip, we started our rally well, being quickest mini by 5 seconds and were leading mini after 2 stages by a couple of seconds, ahead of Andrew in car 122 and Steve in car 121.

Pushing hard on Stage 1

I continued to push on SS3 Barregarroo until about 5 miles in we took a 6 left corner a little too fast clipped the bank on the right hand side and slipped into a ditch which got deeper and muddier until we stuck fast ! We eventually got towed out by the rescue truck after the stage closed but by then we had a maximum and had to miss stage 4 to get back to service within our time allowance.

Car beached on sump guard in very muddy ditch.

The car was driving ok so we just had to do some remodelling of the wing to get ready for the night leg 2.

Sterling work in service by Spen and Will

Any chance of a respectable result was now gone with 2 max stage times adding 35minutes to our total, but we had to get to the finish. Another mini crew in trouble was Josh Dallimore with 3 stage maximums after the fan destroyed itself on the rad. Leading mini at this point was Steve Higgins on 25m38s with Andrew only 1.4 seconds behind, very close after 21 stage miles. Friday Leg 2 Our plan from now on was to have fun and enjoy the stages but not take the extra risks you need to set fastest times. Typically the car never missed a beat for the remainder of the rally including the 8 stages on Saturday.

Stage 9 Little London at Sartfield hairpin

Positions after the night leg 2: Car121 Steve Higgins/Corey Powell jones 1h05m03s Car 122 Andrew O’Hanlon/Kevin Hogan 1h06m21s Car 131 Shinobu Kitani/Hiroko Kitani 1h08m24s their time over stage 9 being very impressive only 2 seconds behind local man Steve Higgins. Les Alfrey in car 125 had alternator failure on stage 9 but got it fixed for the Saturday restart only to lose oil pressure on stage 11 causing their retirement. Saturday Legs 3 and 4 Before the start on Saturday morning I had agreed the sale of the car to my friend and fellow competitor Shinobu, so we set out to enjoy the stages without inflicting any further damage to the car

With my Japanese friends Shinobu and Hiroko with their immaculate Mini Cooper s

The top 3 minis had no further dramas and finished in the same order, with Paul and Gemma Taylor 4th mini and us bringing BRX home 5th mini and 70th overall. Josh Dallimore retiring with broken diff , and Eric Davies in the Mini Clubman retiring with overheating due to blown headgasket . Only 74 cars finished out of 139 starters showing the real challenge of the Manx stages over two intensive days.

Our final shot leaving Douglas on its way to Southport on route to its new home in Japan where it will be very much appreciated and enjoyed.

Many thanks to Spen for his excellent car preparation, not matched by my skill on this occasion, Will for a brilliant job on the notes, and especially MINISPARES for their parts and support over more than 20 years.

Photos by the author and action shots by Mark Simms (Mark@rallygallery.com)

Peter Horsburgh