Three Legs of Mann 2026 - Leg Two Rally Report
Leg 2 began under the clear and star filled skies of the Manx night, which is not always the case in these parts. As it was though, and despite the weather warnings, conditions were about as pleasant as they can be, despite the temperature plummeting rapidly as soon as the sun went down.
For those that had survived Leg 1, there were 2 regularities, 3 tests and 4 time-control sections to contend with, a walk in the park! More like a fight in the dark, a fight that in some instances the night would win. There was an early casualty at the end of the second regularity, as for the second time in the event one of the front runners suffered a rally ending mechanical. The victims this time were the event leaders, Mick Valentine and Ryan Pickering, who’s lead at the end of the first leg had been mighty. A broken half shaft put paid to their hopes though, leaving them wondering what could have been.
On the evenings tests there was a familiar story, as the Escorts of Blacker and Frost, and Bloxham and Darkin went toe to toe. Honours were even on the first test, but Bevan and Niall would perform the best on the rest, aiding their challenge to retain the top spot now that Valentine and Pickering were out.
Martyn Taylor and Phil Savage were also performing well, and they had managed to rocket up the order from 13th position at the start of the leg, to 4th overall at the midpoint. Nick and Andy Pullan were also going well in the Peugeot 205, and despite a power deficiency on the tests, they had risen up to third after delivering in plenty of zeros on the regs, including cleaning half of the 7 timing points on reg 2, no mean feat in the Conrhenny Plantation.
Up to second were Ali and Lynsey Proctor, but Friday the 13th was about to bite them, as a broken engine mount scuppered their progress. Thankfully, the issue has been fixed, and they will be out for the final leg, fighting for pride if nothing else.
Onward then to the meat of the evening, the four Time Control sections. The first two of these took place back at the Jurby Airfield and created utter chaos, with the crews suffering a bit of a baptism of fire as the routes overlapped and as well as having to cope with the tricky aspect of navigating around an airfield in the dark, there was the added element of negotiating cars that had missed their navigational cues, and in some instances were going in opposing directions to the rest of the traffic.
Once the crews had survived the Jurby fun, and had hopefully avoided wrong slotting into Jurby Prison, the final two acts of the evening would play out in the South Barrule and Archallagan Plantations. Thankfully, the weather had remained clear, making the job of navigating between the trees easier than it might have been, though it was still a tough challenge, particularly at the end of a long day. Whilst the Yellow and White Escorts were as flamboyant as ever, it was steady away for a lot of the competitors, choosing to err on the side of caution with the end of the leg so close. There were still mistakes though, including a near miss for Paul Mills and Miles Fieldhouse, as they overcooked a bend and put the Mini Cooper into the soft verge, needed a push to get them out and back underway again.
It was past midnight before the final crews made it back to base, and once the timekeepers had crunched the numbers it was no surprise to see that Bevan Blacker and Niall Frost, who had been flying all evening, were top of the pile. Across the leg they had bested the competition by 3:37 seconds and enter the final leg with a commanding 4:51 seconds in the bank to second placed Martyn Taylor and Phil Savage, who’s tremendous performance during the night leg has seen an astronomical rise from 13th to 2nd. 3rd place is in the hands of Andy Lane and Iain Tullie, 38 seconds behind the 2nd placed Astra with the Pullan’s only a fraction behind them in 4th.
It is then advantage Escort, though it would take a brave person to bet on the result of this one at this stage after all of the twists so far. There are ten tests and six regs shoehorned into the final day and the ever-present threat of mechanical gremlins, and plenty of sorting out still to be done. It will be an intriguing final day.