Isle of Man Rally: Arron Newby and Robert Fagg win for second time – BBC Sport

Arron Newby and co-driver Robert Fagg won the Pokerstars Rally on the Isle of Man for the second time as a pair.

The Subaru duo beat Mark Kelly and Neil Colman by 40 seconds.

Weather affected much of the two-day event and six of the 16 stages had to be cancelled because the conditions were deemed unfit.

Defending champions Jamie Jukes and James Morgan made a strong start, winning the first stage by 13 seconds, but retired at the start of day two.

Newby and Manxman Fagg first won the Pokerstars Rally together in 2013, when the former was just 18 years old.

The victory was his third overall after he also finished first in 2017 with Rory Kennedy as co-driver.

Hywel Davies and Simon Jones had a lucky escape during stage one when their vehicle caught fire following a crash.

Both competitors escaped from the car before the fire took hold and were checked over by paramedics.

Stage two did not go ahead, but Newby and Fagg struck back on the next two before stages five to seven were cancelled because of icy roads.

Newby and Fagg, therefore, held an overnight advantage of one second over Jukes and Morgan.

Torrid conditions greeted the competitors on the second day of action and forced organisers to call off stage eight but not before Jukes and Morgan were forced to retire their Mitsubishi Mirage.

Newby and Fagg picked up where they left off with another win on stage nine and extended their lead to 55 seconds.

Kelly and Colman won the final four stages in their Ford Escort MK2 and took almost 50 seconds out of the lead, but it was not quite enough and Newby and Fagg held on for the overall win.

Source: bbc.co.uk