Damian Cole bagged a good haul of points to keep his Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship title hopes on track, despite suffering mechanical problems on the Manx National Rally.
An early problem with the launch control system delayed his Get Connected/Energizer-backed Focus WRC05, leaving him in a lowly 16th place after SS2.
Changing the clutch at mid-day service didn’t cure the problem, but he and co-driver Max Freeman pushed on and climbed up to seventh overall by the end of day one – and more importantly collecting points for fifth placed registered Asphalt Championship driver.
The double points-scoring event continued the next day, where the Focus’ fault was traced to a sensor on the clutch pedal. Once that was put right, Damian was able to get cleanly off the start line – and he eventually finished seventh overall, collecting more points for another fifth place.
It wasn’t his first Manx win that he was looking for – having finished second, third and fourth, Damian is yet to win on the Isle of Man – but scoring on both rounds sees him hold a strong third in the drivers’ table.