Manx Rally 2022 – Shields enjoys island life

For 60 years rally crews have been pitting themselves against the closed public roads of the Isle of Man and after a two-year sabbatical the Manx Rally returned on 13-14 May.  Paul Lawrence reports…

This year’s edition suffered for entries, as it lacked a headline championship, but as a round of the HRCR Stage Masters Challenge and the Welsh Historic Championship, a good number of historic cars featured on the 70-strong entry.  They faced 110 competitive miles on the stunning Manx lanes, starting in the early evening of Friday and running into the dark before continuing through Saturday to cover classic stages like Tholt-y-Will, Little London and Druidale.

A time consuming off hobbled Guy Woodcock and Ali Proctor

Will Rowlands and Iestyn Williams were easily the quickest historic crew in the entry in their full specification Ford Escort Mk2-BDG.  Rowlands was initially handed a very poor seeding but moved well up the running order before the start.  Sure enough, Rowlands set a searing pace over the opening stages of Friday evening and finished the leg seventh overall.  But on the final stage of the night, Druidale, the Sherwood engine was misfiring and when overnight efforts to solve the problem failed, Rowlands retired rather than risk the engine.

Guy Woodcock and Ali Proctor should have taken over at the head of the pack in their Escort Mk2 but a time consuming off into a fence on Friday night and then a puncture on Saturday cost them a lot of time. 

See our June 2022 issue for the full story…