2016 MSA British Rally Champion Elfyn Evans enjoyed the final weekend of the reinvigorated series as he took a well deserved victory at the 2016 Isle of Man Rally ahead of former BRC champion and DMACK team-mate Mark Higgins.
Evans was pushed from the start with Citroen star Craig Breen taking the opening stages before an engine issue put him out of the running. Evans and Higgins were left to fight it out between themselves with the Welshman getting the upper hand of the local Higgins.
“It has been a long and tough weekend and it has been challenging throughout.” said Evans. “I was still finding out a lot about the car and tyres as we didn’t test beforehand so there was a lot of tweaking to get the car perfect.
“I wanted to try and go for it and build a comfortable lead and then manage that, but then we hit trouble with drive shaft problems, which cost us nearly a minute. The fight was then on and it was a great battle with Mark [Higgins] to try and claw the time back. To do it on stages where he has so much local knowledge was hard as I haven’t been on these roads since 2010!
Credit: MSA British Rally Championship
“To take victory is the icing on the cake for not only me but the whole team. To give them the teams’ championship was ultimately the reason for coming here and I was maybe selfish as well as I wanted to take the fight to Mark and win the event. The win tops off a great year in the BRC and a great reward to DMACK and the whole team for their hard work in 2016.”
With the 2016 MSA BRC season wrapped up, Evans can now concentrate his full efforts on the WRC2 championship that plays the supporting role to the FIA World Rally Championship in which he is currently just two points ahead of Teemu Suninen. The 2016 Tour de Corse – Rallye de France takes place 29 September – 2 October and TCF will be offering full coverage over the weekend.
