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Wozencroft Manx Star Drive (July 23, 2008)
Last weekend Britain’s top rally drivers descended on the Isle of Man for the third round of the 2008 British Rally Championship. Among them were Revolution Wheels backed rally aces James Wozencroft and Chris Ridge piloting their new Geoff Jones Motorsport run Subaru Impreza. The Ludlow based duo started the Manx event 4th overall in the British Championship, one place ahead of 3 times British Rally Champion Mark Higgins, after an impressive opening two rounds of the championship.
The crews would have to face 180 stage miles over 23 special stages of some of the worlds most challenging asphalt lanes, but making the already demanding task even more treacherous was the extreme weather conditions.
A cautious approach to the start of the rally would leave Wozencroft 13th overall. Not the start they were after but when heavy fog descended on the mountain stages Wozencroft was in his element, climbing 7 places to 6th overall by the end of the day.
Scattered showers plagued the second day of the rally and the MSA British Rally Elite pairing revelled in the tricky conditions to move up another place. Only slowed by some wrong tyre choices and an impact with a wall resulting in a broken steering rack, the crew were looking at their best ever result.
Day 3 combined some of the islands most famous stages; Marine Drive, Tholt-y-will and the Classic. These roads would set the scene for one of the toughest battles of the season between Wozencroft and the 2007 Pirelli Star Driver Darren Gass. 25 seconds separated them with 7 stages left to go but with a “maximum attack” attitude the Ludlow team opened the gap to 52 seconds and claimed the 5th overall they so badly wanted.
For their efforts on the island James and Chris are now 3rd overall in the British Rally Championship, but more importantly James was awarded the Star Driver of the rally, an award previously won by Ari Vatenen, Mark Higgins and James’ hero Colin McRae. Not a bad result for the lads first season in a 4 wheel drive car.
James would like to thank everyone at Revolution Wheels and Geoff Jones Motorsport for all their help and efforts in getting such a fantastic result.Click here to return to the News page
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