Rochdale rally driver Steve Brown will make his return to competition next week when he contests Rally Isle of Man.
Brown has not driven on an event since last year’s Pokerstars rally as he has been busy both building a new car and upgrading the Nissan Micra which he used to finish 16th overall last time out.
With the new car not quite ready Brown will use the same Mintex Racing, Fuchs Titan Race, 710 Oils, PIAA, Sabelt UK and Six 80 Ltd Aviation Asset Management-backed Micra as last year for his challenge on the tough island event.
“We still have some work to do on the new car but hopefully that will be out later in the year,” said Brown. “We’ll be back in the purple 1300cc Micra on the Isle of Man. We had great results there in 2012 and 2013 so we’re looking to make it a hat-trick this year.”
“The car has gone through some updates in the last few months with throttle bodies, a pedal box and hydraulic handbrake being fitted so we’ll be pushing hard to get as high up the leaderboard as we can.”
“The rally is a huge test of both car and crew. There are nearly 170 miles of competitive stages on the notoriously tricky Manx roads, some of which are in the dark. The weather is usually a big challenge on the island too, with conditions changing from sunshine to rain and mist in a matter of minutes.”
The rally starts on Thursday evening with four stages including the highly popular spectator stage on Douglas promenade. A further 20 stages will take place on Friday and Saturday with the crews finishing at the famous TT Grandstand.
