Mitsubishi
Ralliart Evolution Cup
Round 3 - Manx Rally, 5th & 6th
May 2006
Willmington wins on the Isle
of Man
Following
their impressive Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Cup
victory on the opening round of the series, the Rallye
Sunseeker, Anthony Willmington and co-driver Andy
White delivered a repeat performance on the RBS International
Manx Rally, which took place on 5th & 6th May.
Their result on the Isle of Man was enough to see
them take the overall MSA National Gravel Championship
lead – the first time ever the series has been
led by a Group N car! They also lead the Production
Class overall.
Right from the start, Willmington was in control and
held the lead for the first four stages on Friday
evening, the Dorset driver reveling in the night-time
stages.
As crews returned to Douglas for the overnight halt,
stage times revealed that Willmington had pulled out
a 35 second lead from Stephen Petch who reported to
still be getting used to his brand new Evolution IX,
which had been finished just a few hours before the
start.
Having adjusted suspension settings in an attempt
to gain even more performance from his trusty Evo
VI, Willmington found that he had made matters worse
for Saturday morning and on SS7 reported to have spun
no less than four times!
With set-up resumed, all seemed to be OK, but when
a pad retaining pin dropped out of the rear brakes
on SS8 Willmington was grateful a farmer had seen
fit to leave a gate open. Having extracted himself
from the field he continued cautiously, relieved to
come away from the incident unscathed – and
still leading the Evo Cup Standings.
On the very same stage third-placed series leader
Tony Thompson also had his biggest moment of the rally
and, entering a split-level hairpin a little quicker
than he would have liked, the car spun over the bank
and toppled onto its roof. Once back on its wheels,
Thompson continued – surprising not loosing
his position.
Although still ‘shaking-down’ his car,
Petch had made good progress, but on SS11 a spec of
dirt in a fuel injector brought his rally to an untimely
end – especially as there were only three stages
left to go.
Thompson was now elevated to second and Paul James
took third place, just reward for his ongoing commitment
to the sport.
The top three Evo Cup positions were held until the
finish with Willmington over five minutes ahead of
Thompson, who was in turn 47 seconds ahead of James.
Wayne Radford came home in fourth and Jonathan Sparks,
now getting more used to his Evo, finished fifth.
“I can’t believe it!” Said a jubilant
Willmington at the finish. “Even though we had
a number of scary moments we were still able to win
the Evo Cup by a considerable margin and to come away
from this event leading the overall Championship is
just fantastic!”
The
fourth round of the Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution
Cup and the National Gravel Championship, takes place
on the Severn Valley Stages in Wales on 3rd June.
Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Cup –
Round 3 Results
1st Anthony Willmington (Dorchester)/Andy
White (Weymouth) – Evo VI: 1:52:22.3
2nd Tony Thompson (Darlington)/Jon
Dunning (York) – Evo VIII: 1:57:31.4
3rd Paul James (Taunton)/Derek Davies
(Swansea) – Evo VIII: 1:58:18.4
4th Wayne Radford (Dinnington)/Craig
Drew (Lydney) – Evo VI: 1:59:40.0
5th Jonathon Sparks (Glastonbury)/Bradley
Magnus (Downham Market) – Evo VII: 2:06:52.2
Retirements
SS1 Emma McKinstry (Bainbridge)/Simon
Mooney (Bainbridge) – Evo VI
SS11 Stephen Petch (Richmond)/Michael
Wilkinson (Tow Law) – Evo XI
ENDS
