BIG WIN FOR SPENCER SPORT
The Llandysul based Spencer Sport Mitsubishi team recorded their first rally on the weekend with a victory in the Jersey Rally.
Following a fiercely fought battle throughout the event, Oxfordshire based driver Simon Mauger scored the first outright win for the Spencer Sport Mirage and in doing so, scored his sixth personal victory in the Jersey Rally. He and co-driver Brian Cammack ended the 31-stage event with an eventual winning margin of 4.7 seconds.
The 2016 Paperclix Jersey Rally featured eight daytime and seven night time stages on the Friday plus a further 16 on the Saturday. Starting at lunchtime on Friday, conditions were dry for the whole of the first day. Having acclimatized to the Mitsubishi, Simon and Brian gathered pace and emerged 9.1 seconds ahead of the Proton of Simon Chapman and Neil Coleman at the service halt following the first eight stages.
Further acclimatisation was required for the stages run in the dark, but Simon and Brian held position and when they returned to the service area for the overnight halt they were 15-seconds behind the leaders. Following the retirement of Chapman and Coleman, their main rivals were now Chris West and Rob Hannah in a Peugeot 306 Maxi.
The overnight rain meant the tight and twisty roads took on a different character, with drivers reporting that the surface was more like ice than asphalt. For Simon and Brian the going was made even more difficult when they clipped a wall with a rear wheel and, although contact with the stonework was minor, they felt it had done something to the rear differential.
All was rectified at the next service halt and, after 19 stages, they had closed the margin between first and second to just 4.3 seconds. After a fierce battle on the drying but still damp roads, Simon and Brian took the lead on stage four and, when West and Hannah dropped out due to a broken driveshaft on stage 27, the Mitsubishi pair eventually secured victory.
At the finish, Simon said: “The car never missed a beat, which is quite something when you take into consideration the technical nature of the roads and 31 stages starts.
“It’s great to drive and I know there’s more to come from the car. I must thank the crew for their hard work and keeping everything working as it should, as well as Spencer Sport, DMack tyres, Nicky Grist Motorsport, Motamec, Beta, Mintex and our Jersey sponsors: Mansell Collection, Acorn Finance, Hotel de France and Top Specs).”