Ashbourne’s Jack Newman endures character building weekend in Roscommon.
Having gone well in round 1 of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship, Jack Newman approached the second round, the Midland Moto Stages Rally, in a positive frame of mind. Unfortunately though, a catalogue of issues plagued the 280bhp Escort Mk2 from the off. On the opening stage, the crew struggled with a badly misted windscreen, the same issue hampering them until service after stage three. Despite this, Jack was happy with the pace and confident he could push harder later in the day. A decision to run a hard rear slick was to cost him further time however, when the rain came on stage 4 and 5. Even worse, however, was the fact that an intermittent electrical problem was causing the car to cut out. Once back to service, the team got to work replacing ignition, master switch and any other possible suspect items in the hope of curing the problem. It soon became apparent, once back on the stages, that these efforts were unsuccessful as the problem remained. With the crew having relocated the ECU in another effort to cure the problem, Jack and navigator Andrew Browne headed to stage 8, hoping to finally show some pace but unfortunately it was not to be. Jack was unable to stop the car at a junction and the Escort sustained considerable damage in the subsequent impact. Despite the fact that the car was still driving, the crew made the decision to withdraw from the event.
“It was just one of those days”, said Jack afterwards, “when everything goes wrong. The car is already off to the bodyshop though, and the ECU has been sent away for inspection. Hopefully that’s all the bad luck out of the way and we can show what we are capable in Monaghan later this month. As ever, I would like to thank all of my sponsors for their ongoing support.”
Next outing for Newman and navigator Andrew Browne is the Monaghan Stages Rally on April 26th.
About Jack Newman
Jack Newman, 27, is an up and coming rally star from Ashbourne Co Meath. For 2015, he tackles the close fought class 13 of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship. His car is the iconic Mark 2 Escort, always a huge favourite with the fans. It is powered by a professionally built Vauxhall 2.0 engine producing over 280bhp, Newman’s recent performances, including a giant killing run in Killarney in 2014, have marked him out as one to watch in 2015.
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