Protyre News

Jason Pritchard has cruised to the top of the Protyre MSA Asphalt Rally Championship after winning the Bet On Aces Manx National Rally for a fourth time.
 
Pritchard, accompanied by co-driver Phil Clarke, led the rally from start to finish, setting the fastest time on 15 the 16 stages. In the opening stages, he excelled in the most challenging conditions with torrential rain, standing water and poor visibility, followed by a repeat run of four difficult stages in the dark and continued his domination by setting fastest time on all of Saturday’s stages in the dry. Victory was also the perfect Birthday present for his father and renowned competitor, Eian, who was 60 on the first day of the event.
 
Daniel Harper and co-driver Chris Campbell finished second, 3mins 06.2 secs behind, which was only their fourth rally in their Minisport-run John Cooper Works Mini WRC. Never putting a foot wrong in a controlled and calculated drive on the extremely wet Leg 1 paid dividends. They cemented their second place as Leg 2 played out on fast and dry roads.
 
Wayne Sisson and co-driver Max Freeman had a different, effective strategy. They pushed hard in the worst of the conditions in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X and then maintained third place for the duration of the race. After a sixth-place finish on the Melvyn Evans Motorsport Tour of Epynt, claiming third in the Manx National has propelled Sisson up to second in the overall Drivers’ standings.

Check out the highlights from Round 2 of the Protyre MSA Asphalt Rally below:

Here’s what the drivers had to say:
 
Jason Pritchard: “It was a pleasure to drive the Focus WRC this weekend, Phil was great on the notes, we had no dramas and we really enjoyed the event. Leg one was the worst conditions I’ve seen in all my years in rallying. There was water running off the fields and onto the roads and being first on the road we were the first to find the worst patches, so it was a real challenge. It’s nice to be leading the Championship after two rounds, but it’s leading at the end of the season that’s important and that’s what we’ll be aiming to do.”
 
Daniel Harper: “It’s been a very tough event. If you said before the start that we’d finish second and enjoy a good event, I’d have taken that. The rally was won last night. We had a plan to drive fast when you could see where you were going and slow down when you couldn’t, which is what we did. We missed the opening round of the Championship because of illness, but we’re up and running now and looking forward to Belgium.”
 
Wayne Sisson (3rd overall): “We did all the hard work in the rain on Friday night and held onto our position in the dry on day two. Leg one was the hardest day of asphalt rallying I have ever done – to do those stages once was a challenge, and then we had to go back out and do them again in the dark. We pushed as hard as we could in the worst of the conditions and it paid off. The car’s been perfect, we’ve put fuel in and tyres on and it’s taken us to our second good result in the Championship. Now we’ll have to see how we get on in Belgium.”

2018 Bet on Aces Manx National Rally – Top 10 overall finishers

Who's leading the Championship?

Here’s what the Protyre MSA Asphalt Rally Championship table looks like after Round 2:

Protyre Motorsport

Protyre Motorsport Division supplies thousands of tyres to racing events throughout the UK and Europe. We have the largest stock of motorsport tyres in the UK which include circuit, rally, motorcycle and ultra-high-performance tyres for road & track. We also have the largest selection of fully equipped mobile tyre fitting workshops for race, rally and track days.
 
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Did you know?

You can stream Round 2 of the Protyre MSA Asphalt Rally Championship with Special Stages. Simply click the button below and enjoy!

For more Protyre MSA Championship information, please contact:
Jane Evans: jane@asphaltrallying.com