by Geoff Mayes
Gordon Nichol suffered a disastrous outing to the Isle of Man last weekend when the Suzuki Cup front runner was caught out in treacherous conditions and crashed through a bank, causing extensive damage to his Swift.
Gordon and co-driver Jane Nicol, winners of the opening round of the championship, had headed to the three-day long Rally Isle of Man just hoping for a solid result. A cautious start saw the pair go fifth fastest through the opening stage, before stepping up the pace over the next few tests.
By the start of the final stage of day one the Cooks Car and Van Hire backed Suzuki Swift was up to second in class. However half way through the stage disaster struck.
Gordon was caught out on a deceptive right hand bend and smashed through the bank, vaulting the little Suzuki end over end into a field. Fortunately neither Gordon nor Jane were injured, but the Swift was going no further.
“Ouch! That was the biggest crash of my rallying career. It was really unfortunate because we were actually just taking it cautiously,” said Nichol.
“At least we weren't alone in crashing there as quite a few others made the same mistake, but that doesn't really help our championship!
“I need to sit down and count the pennies now as that has really dented both the car and the budget!”
Ironically, despite challenging for the overall championship honours entering this rally, Gordon is quite possibly one of the least experienced drivers in the series. The Rally Isle of Man was only his 20th ever rally - and his first time on the Manx.
The next round of the Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship is the Todd's Leap Ulster Rally, which takes place from August 22-23. Anyone interested in supporting Gordon for the remainder of the season are invited to get in touch with him at
gtrallying@fsmail.net and he will be more than happy to go through all options available for a company looking to advertise in the premier rally championship in the UK.
