Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss need to win both rounds within Rally Isle of Man to thwart Daniel McKenna/Arthur Kierans and become MSA British Rally champions. They set about the task in the best possible way, leading the event outright after the first night of stages in perfect dry conditions.
Both crews are in Citroen DS3’s, but Pirelli Star Driver McKenna was fastest out of the blocks on the opening Villa Marina stage on Douglas promenade as the two went head-to-head in front of large spectator galleries, eking out a small 0.8s advantage.
After a quick service halt, Pryce set about the task, snatching 6.9s from his rival on the five mile run down 5 Tons Bridge, McKenna responding over the next test, SS3 Ravensdale featuring Druidale and Sartfield, to cut the defecit to 4.6s overnight. A small but crucial advantage perhaps.
For the remaining BRC crews, all in ford Fiesta’s, the night was more testing. Gus Greensmith/Melanie Holmes incurred a stage maximum for going the wrong way on SS1, Dean Raftery/Aileen Kelly were unhurt when they rolled on SS2 on Tholt-y-Will and Chris Wheeler/Yan Griffiths were sidelined from the event on SS4 Sand Quarry, causing the stage to be cancelled and times scrubbed.
With the two main protagonists an impressive first and second overall, the leading National crew are Connor Corkill/Paul McCann (Subaru Impreza) in third, just 0.3s up on reiging Manx champions Arron Newby/Rob Fagg’s Subaru. Steve Colley/Andrew Cowley suffered a startline stall on SS1 but hold fifth while Nigel and Michaela Cannell were struggling with power coming out of corners but are in the top six overnight, both crews in Mitisubishi Evo IX’s.
First of the Historics are Rob Smith/Alun Cook in seventh, whilst Mintex British Historic Championship crew Meirion Evans/Iwan Jones are second Historic, just ahead of Guy Woodcock/Ross Weir, all in Ford Escort MkII’s.
On Friday crews will tackle 13 closed roads special stages across the island on 14 hours between 9am and 11pm, headlined by the double run through Castletown in the evening, always popular with large numbers of spectators.
Combined Top 10 after SS4 of 24 (End of Day 1)
1 2 Osian Pryce Dale Furniss Citroen DS3 11:56.2
2 1 Daniel McKenna Arthur Kierans Citroen DS3 R3 12:00.8
3 10 Connor Corkill Paul McCann Subaru Impreza 12:10.1
4 7 Arron Newby Rob Fagg Subaru Impreza 12:10.4
5 9 Steve Colley Andrew Cowley Mitusbishi Evo IX 12:28.9
6 8 Nigel Cannel Michaela Cannel Mitusbishi Evo IX 12:33.6
7 11 Rob Smith Alun Cook Ford Escort RS1800 13:12.8
8 12 Martyn Jones Martin Burns Vauxhall Nova GSi 13:14.7
9 18 Carine Walker Dannii Matthews BMW 325 13:17.1
10 13 Meirion Evans Iwan Jones Ford Escort MkII 13:25.3
Photo - Osian Pryce/Dale Furniss on SS1 Villa Marina - courtesy Jakob Ebrey Photography
