Official rally reports of rally driver Ryan Champion

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Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship Round 3 - Rally Isle of Man 3rd,4th & 5th Aug 2006

Rain Stops Play for Champion

This year’s Rally Isle of Man, which took place on 3rd, 4th & 5th August, saw Ryan Champion assume his familiar position, challenging for a top position in the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.

But even after setting a series of front-running stage times, it was not the event he and the Mitsubishi Motors UK Rally team had hoped for, when Champion and his team-mate Rory Galligan retired on the second day following incidents on roads which had been made incredibly slippery by rain after a long spell of dry weather .

Having scored a first round victory and third place in round two of the British Championship, Champion was all set for a good result in round three. However, to win on the Isle of Man was always going to be a challenge against current British Champion and Manx-born Subaru driver Mark Higgins.

Predictably, following the event’s first leg of five stages on Thursday evening, Higgins was in the lead, with Guy Wilks in a Suzuki second. After setting a fastest stage time on SS4 Champion was third with Galligan just seven seconds behind in fourth, but both Mitsubishi drivers had been caught out on the wrong tyres, the island’s unpredictable weather living up to its reputation.

The final service halt of the day at the TT Grandstand found many competitors reporting that road conditions were more difficult than ever, including Champion and Galligan who each requested that adjustments be made to their car’s suspension settings before day-two.

As rain fell in some parts of the island during Friday morning, tyre choice again became a lottery for the day’s 11 stages. As such, Champion was caught out by the inconsistent conditions on SS6, spun and consequently swapped places with Galligan, who in-turn went on to spin on SS7 but held on to third place.

Wilks then succumbed to a similar lack of adhesion on SS11, although his spin saw him leave the road for 30 seconds allowing both Mitsubishi drivers to pass. Galligan set off on SS12 looking to consolidate his position. But then, whilst negotiating a series of bends - each with differing levels of grip, he slid wide and the car struck a bank, the angle of which caused the car to roll and come to rest on its roof.

This left Champion from Castleton and his co-driver Craig Thorley from Pocklington in second place and now setting times comparable with Higgins and a gap of nearly two-minutes would mean victory could be theirs if the Subaru driver had a problem. With another fall of rain adding to the ever-changing nature of the roads later that afternoon, Champion paid greater attention to the sections in his pacenotes that referred to ‘shiny tar’. Then, on SS17 when approaching one stretch of road he had already cautioned as slippery, he found there was no grip at all and although trying all he could to slow the car down, he clipped a wall, the impact immediately removing a front wheel.
Realising that others were likely to have a similar incident in the same place, Champion wisely drove the car to a safe point a little further up the stage – just as well, as the next car driven by Seamus Leonard, also in a Mitsubishi hit the same wall, but with more damaging consequences. A further five cars later went off on the same stretch of road in one of the support events. “I still can’t believe how slippery that section of road was. I had it cautioned in the pacenotes, but it was far worse that I had ever imagined. There was just no grip at all – it was like glass!” recalled Champion. “Once we started sliding it was just a case of trying to minimise the impact and with others having similar incidents at the same place it shows just how bad the road surface was. Frustratingly we weren’t even attacking at that point. With Rory out and Mark (Higgins) well ahead I was just eager to score as many championship points as possible. But the season’s not over yet!” Although a disappointing conclusion to this weekend’s event, Champion retains his second position in the British Rally Championship and the experience gained on the Isle of Man will now be put to good use for round four of the British Rally Championship, the Ulster Rally, which takes place on 1st & 2nd September.