After the first leg of the RBS International Manx Rally on Friday evening, Welshman Melvyn Evans leads going into the second day whilst defending champion Marcus Dodd heads the Pirelli MSA Gravel Rally Championship in third place overall.
Evans and co-driver Sean Mullally have a 14.5 second advantage in their Subaru Impreza WRC from five-time winner Kenny McKinstry and Noel Orr in their Subaru Impreza WRC whilst Dodd and Manx co-driver Andrew Bargery hold third in their Hyundai Accent WRC after the first five stages despite losing five seconds on stage two after suffering a cracked windscreen.
Roger Duckworth and Mark Broomfield, making a return to the series and contesting their first event since their accident on the Cork 20 International Rally last year, occupy fourth spot and second in the championship points in their Subaru Impreza WRC followed by Richard Cathcart and Martin Brady, who lead Group N in their Mitsubishi Evo 9.
Sixth overnight is David Kynaston and Andy Russell in their Audi 3 Quattro followed by championship contenders Keith Cronin and Greg Shinnors in their Evo 9 with Jon Ingram and Ian Allsop, winners of round two of the Gravel Championship, a second behind in eighth in their Subaru Impreza WRC. Ingram and Allsop struggled through stages three, four and five with a problem believed to be with the gearbox but they hope to have resolved the issue come the restart this morning.
Stephen Moore and Tony McHugh, on their first time in the Isle of Man, are 10th in their Ford Focus WRC and sixth in the MSA Gravel Rally Championship standings behind the Impreza of David Mann and Alun Cook.
There were no retirements on the first day from the 24 registered Gravel Championship crews that started as the weather remained kind being dry and a little overcast.
The action resumes at 8.45am on Saturday with nine more stages before the finish at the TT Grandstand in Douglas with the first car due at 3.22pm.
![Marcus Dodd / Andrew Bargery. Hyundai Accent WRC. RBS International Manx Rally. May 2008. [Pic credit: www.cmwi.net]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/438538.jpg)
