CONQUERING THE ISLE OF MAN
Why the Manx challenge is special
This weekend was going to be a big one. Mid-may is Manx National weekend which is a highlight in itself, but the Manx International name was set to return alongside it after a three-year pause that consigned it to the history books. But then coronavirus had its say.
At its peak, the Manx International was a 400-mile rally held in September and a counting round of the European, British and Irish Tarmac Rally Championships. But despite a natural decrease in mileage, the charm of the Manx remained and it was always the rally to win on the British calendar.
However, the last decade has been a sour one for the International event. While the National has continued to run and offered competitors the same albeit shorter challenge than its cousin, the International lost its way as first it lost BRC status, then there were issues with attracting enough marshals and failure to secure the Road Closure Order in sufficient time in 2018 was the final nail
in the coffin. The exciting return may now be delayed, but that won’t stop us remembering what makes the Manx International winners’trophy the ultimate centrepiece.
With the help of some of the most successful drivers ever to take on the island, here is Motorsport News’ guide on how to conquer the Manx International complete with recollections of what makes it such a special rally.
The pedigree
There’s no denying that the illustrious history of the Manx International Rally – and indeed the Isle of Man in general – is a major part in the event’s appeal.
The Isle of Man is a proper motorsport island. With the legendary TT race and its various rallies throughout the year, the place is a mecca for fans of speed.
“It just seems a little bit special,” says triple-winner Martin Rowe. “That’s because you go over there on a ferry, or you fly in or whatever, it’s a special little place. It’s its own island, everything is rally mad that whole week, the whole island is ramped up for it.
“The stages are unique. There’s some parts that are literally flat out [in] sixth gear with the light on and [then] you turn down a small lane, and the outer edge of the tyre may be an inch to two inches off the road because the roads are so narrow. So there’s bits where the car performs amazing and there’s bits where everything’s compromised because it’s really bumpy and narrow.”
All rally drivers want to win every single rally they enter, but just like Monte-carlo and Finland in the WRC, there’s an added kudos that comes with a Manx International victory.
“It’s the rally to win, it really is,” explains 2003 and ’04 victor Jonny Milner. “It seems to be the first tick on the bucket list. It is such a challenge, it was the longest rally of the year and it was the one to really get your teeth into. You had a horrendous amount of stages to do.”
The prestige that comes with a win on the island means everything, but perhaps even more so to Eugene Donnelly as one of the few Irish or Northern Irishmen to win the event.
“I’ve done something that the folk heroes of Irish rallying Austin Machale, Bertie Fisher and Andrew Nesbitt never did,” he says. “You’ve got to understand how iconic an event it was, it had world status to me. It rose above every other event in Ireland because every event in Ireland was achievable to go and do. It’s just one of these huge events that you’d never in your wildest dreams expect to go but yet there I was with the Toyota Corolla WRC and going on to win it.”
The challenge
Rally Deutschland is famous for essentially offering three different
Tarmac rallies in three days, but the Manx offers that all on the same stage. Variety is the optimum word to describe the event and is just one of several challenging aspects of the rally.
“You’ve got to give the place so much respect,” Milner says. “It’s such a diverse rally because it’s very narrow with the big, high banks and then the next thing you’re on the TT course, wide open, flowing, not many banks to get worried about. You’ve got to change your style, your flair in the stage.”
The Isle of Man’s famous microclimate always plays its part too. “You almost get four seasons on one stage on the Isle of Man,” Milner adds. “You’ve sunshine in Douglas, work up towards the mines [and] it starts to rain, then you’re up on the top
and that then is thick fog and then you start to come back down the far side and you’re back in sunshine again.”
Rowe agrees: “That makes the Isle of Man. There’s changes of surface, there’s bumps in places where you don’t expect them [and there’s] shiny Tar.”
Adapting to this onslaught is crucial to avoid disaster, as 1994 winner Malcolm Wilson attests: “There’s no question, it definitely ranks as one of the most difficult Tarmac events probably in the world to be able to master. The set-up of the car is crucial. In one sense it’s probably a little bit like Finland. You’ll go [over] two, three jumps and think ‘ah that’s fine I’ve got away with it’ but sadly the third or the fourth one will bite you. [And] nine times out of 10 if you go off on the Isle of Man, you’re not going any further. With it being narrow and the high banks you end up doing a lot of damage very, very quickly.”
Emulating heroes
A mere glance down the Manx International winners’ list (see left) illustrates the skill set required to succeed. You can’t be an ordinary driver and call yourself a Manx International winner so joining a list as prestigious as this is the stuff of dreams. Certain victories are remembered more than others though; none more so than Patrick Snijers’ dominant display in 1988.
Donnelly recalls: “Obviously like many other petrolheads and rear-wheel-drive fanatics, Patrick Snijers and the Isle of Man Rally and the visions of that BMW coming sideways on pure, dry Tarmac leaving black lines behind it, even right now sends shivers up my back. As a young fellow, I wanted to emulate that.”
The Manx has always been an event that stands out. In the 1970s, it was the only event to adopt pacenotes while it was also traditionally the final round of the British championship season and that only adds to its cult status. Many titles have consequently been decided on the island including on the rally’s last iteration where Keith Cronin stole the 2017 BRC crown from Fredrik Ahlin by a single point after beating Matt Edwards by just 0.1 seconds.
But when it comes to thrilling title scraps, 1997 is hard to top. Alister
Mcrae, Gwyndaf Evans, Robbie Head, Mark Higgins and Martin Rowe all headed to the Manx in title contention. Remarkably Mcrae and Evans both crashed on the Kerrowglass stage and Head later retired with an engine issue making it a two-horse race.
“It basically came down to myself and Mark,” Rowe remembers. “I can remember the weather was changeable and people were like ‘yeah yeah but you’ve got a home advantage’, but I was like ‘not against Mark Higgins’!”
After SS26, The Gate, Higgins was ahead by 26s but it soon looked to be in tatters. A driveshaft on his Nissan Sunny GTI broke on Ballagyr and he was now a similar margin behind. Charging to reverse his deficit, Higgins then broke a top mount over a crest on SS30 of 32, putting the tracking out and that ultimately led to him famously ripping a wheel off on the penultimate stage. Higgins salvaged second which was enough for a maiden title, but he’d lost the Manx victory to fellow Manxman Rowe.
“I should’ve finished the rally absolutely elated, winning the British championship in what was an amazing year,” Higgins recalls. “But it was such a close fight with everybody I was absolutely gutted that I hadn’t won the Manx.”
The secrets to success
Higgins would take his first Manx win in 2000 before taking four of the next eight victories to elevate himself to the top of the roll of honour. Within those five wins there are some jaw-dropping drives too; namely when he won all 23 stages in 2005 – as well as 14 of 15 on that year’s National – and in 2008 when he edged Eamonn Boland’s WRC Subaru by 11.6s in a Group N example. Higgins is therefore not a bad man to quiz on what it takes to conquer the island.
“I think as I found out later on, going slower in a few places makes you actually go faster,” he says. “And not trying to attack in the wrong place really. You don’t want a car which is set up for one stage, you’ve got to have a good compromise with it and just a good feeling because there is so many changes that go on.”
More so than on any other event, patience is key. Knowing where to push and where to manage the pace and preserve the car is the winning tactic but experience of the stages is paramount too, and it can take years to adjust to the unique contours of the Manx.
“It’s got characteristics to it that no rally in Ireland has,” Donnelly, who won on his third visit, says. “It’s one of those places you have to know, it takes experience to win it. At those times and in that generation that rallied in World [Rally] Cars you couldn’t win it on your first attempt.”
Milner had his own strategy for success. When the weather was threatening, he would carry two spare tyres instead of the usual one so he could change to full wets if it poured down. He continues: “You’ve got a mechanical advantage then as well as probably a psychological advantage because everyone goes ‘shit he’s on that now’ he’s going to wipe our behinds with it now.”
But Rowe took it one step further in his quest to win and would pinpoint sections where he could steal a march. “If you knew exactly where you’re going and you
can take some calculated risks that would obviously be an advantage,” he says.
“Everyone can go around a hairpin corner [at] pretty much the same speed, so where you can pick up time was on the sketchy stuff where it was a bit dangerous or a little bit exposed. So I used to literally learn those places,” Rowe reveals.
“For example, if you come down from Druidale and you go right there’s a wider, faster road and there’s a big fresh air drop on the left-hand side and seven right-hand corners; and I used to learn that. I’ve never seen anyone else not lift around those seven corners but I used to know exactly millimetre perfect where to turn in, where to go out to the edge of the road by the drop and everything else so there’s seconds there where for sure I could pull a couple of seconds out. You’d literally dig your elbows in your ribs, grit your teeth and go for it.”
Did it work? Absolutely. Rowe won the rally three years on the bounce at the height of the Formula 2 Kit Car era. Renault team-mate in 1999, Tapio Laukkanen, demonstrated what can otherwise happen as he suffered two identical accidents in ’99 with the Megane and in 2000 with the VW Golf at exactly the same point of the same stage. The Manx was one of two BRC rounds missing from the Finn’s glowing CV.
Riding your luck
Lady Luck will always have her say however, no matter how prepared the driver is or what form they’ve shown.
Due to its long and demanding route and its traditional status as the season’s curtain closer, the Manx International has been known to be cruel.
Jimmy Mcrae found this out in 1986 when lying in second behind Tony Pond. As a local resident and supremely-talented driver, the fact Pond was leading was no surprise but Mcrae wasn’t fixated on beating his team-mate. Second was enough to clinch what would’ve been a fourth British title at the time.
Mcrae picks up the story: “On that last day we had turned the rev counter back a bit; instead of revving it at 9500 we put it back to 8500rpm and just drove sensibly. We drove up to a 90 left, everything was perfect, braked, turned round the 90 left and bang, the cambelt broke. And that was it. I could’ve had another British championship to my name had that cambelt not gone. We were taking
30% of the stress out the car, the brakes, the engine, everything, so that was a hard retirement to swallow that one. We had the championship in the bag.”
Rowe meanwhile suffered the opposite fortune, where fate was on his side in 1998. The donkey work had been done to secure the British title but he still needed a finish on the Manx. And then something happened through a haybale chicane.
“We were full-left lock, full-right lock and full-left lock and the driveshaft popped out, and it went onto one-wheel drive and I remember banging the steering wheel and swearing like ‘shit no’is this the whole year coming down to this thing?,” Rowe relives.
“And then once I got on the straight, it popped back in which is absurd and I’ve never heard of that happening again. The guys checked it, there was a c-clip in there and it popped out and when we went onto the straight again it popped back in. That was a bit of a heartstopping moment.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, nobody was willing to recount any of the drunken misdemeanours that occurred after the rally to Motorsport News, but rest assured there were many wild nights after the Manx International. And wild moments on the stages too, none more iconic than Terry Harryman’s
“Oh dear God” exclamation in 1983 when driver Ari Vatanen wrestled to control his Opel Manta on approach to a cattle grid.
While the Manx International this weekend was to be a two rather than three-day affair and was running in May and not September, listening to these tales serves as a reminder of just how important the rally is to the British rallying calendar. Bring on 2021. ■