Originally Posted by krypton

“It was still damp on Saturday morning, but the stages were drying. The best stage for me was Tholt-y-Will. It’s a very fast stage, mostly 5th and 6th gear, with only a couple of hairpins,” McRae said on his website.

“That meant we didn’t lose out as much to the 4WD machines. They really score on the twisty stages where exit speed from corners is much greater than a 2WD car. So we were only 1.2 seconds behind Kenny McKinstry in the WRC Impreza - the Escort was working well in there!

McRae in typical pose on the Manx Rally“If that was my best stage, Campbell’s (his co-driver) was possibly stage 12, although he got a bit nervous when I started looking for 7th gear. The Escort is geared for 139 mph in 6th and it was on the rev limiter at times, but it only has 6 gears - I could really have done with a 7th gear!” McRae said