Eager to gain more experience the pair persevered and carried on, only to discover that the Mitsubishi was now losing power and time thanks to a head gasket failure. They also lost more time when they suffered a high speed puncture and had to stop to change it.
They then had to run for two stages with a different compound tyre on the car, affecting the handling. Despite all these dramas though, Simon and Craig still continued to record top ten times.
"I had never even visited the island before so had no clue what to expect. The level of grip and the strength of the brakes surprised me, but our pace did not," said Harraway.
"I am very confident in my speed on tarmac and my co-driver Craig, the Manx requires 100 per cent commitment to notes and once again he was faultless throughout. The Manx was a great experience it's just a pity we had all these dramas. Once again we've shown we have the pace to fight at the front whether on tarmac gravel or forest I don't feel we have a weakness.
"The Manx is a very hard event on the car and team and now I know what to expect I am confident we will go well on the BRC International Rally Isle of Man in July. I am also looking forward to the
Jim Clark in two weeks!
"I must saw a big thanks to Andy from SW Motorsport who assisted us a great deal this weekend too, as well as to PIAA. We were running on new gas discharge lights this weekend and driving in the dark with those new lights was amazing!"
The Regency Group and Oakley backed Evo will now be completely rebuilt ahead of their next outing, the Scottish based Jim Clark International Rally, the second round of the 2008 Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.
![Simon Harraway / Craig Drew. Mitsubishi Evo. RBS Manx International Rally. May 2008. [Pic credit: Geoff Mayes Media - www.geoffmayesmedia.com]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/438597.jpg)
