Martyn Jones finally scored the outright victory that his talent has long deserved when winning the OrmCo Jurby Stages on Saturday.

Expected frontrunners, Steve Colley and Mark Rodman, were fastest on the first three of eight airfield stages in gale- force winds, with rain often threatening.

The Mitsubishi Evo IX pair opened up a comfortable 28-second lead over the father and daughter team of Timmy and Cliona Collins (Evo X).

Jones, co-driven by fellow Kirk Michael man Rob Fagg, was a further second back in the Vauxhall Nova.

But a miscount on the multi-loop stages saw Colley incur more than five minutes of penalties on SS4, as Collins and Jones tied for the event lead from the Honda Civic of Rory McCann and Rhys Warrilow.

McCann withdrew at lunchtime service because of gearbox issues with the Civic, as did Colley - despite setting fastest time on SS5.

Jones and Fagg had moved to the front by a mere two seconds.

The new leaders then collided with a post on SS6, losing front-end bodywork on the Nova and handing the advantage to Collins by eight seconds with two tests to go.

A stunning run through SS7 saw Jones fastest by 11s to reclaim the lead, and the victory was secured with another fastest time on SS8.

Second place also represented the Collins’s best result to date.

Sean Kelly and Jack Corlett (Evo IX) completed the podium, having been involved in their own private battle with Paul and Michael McEvoy (Subaru), who were ultimately excluded for a reversing infringement.

The Manx Auto Sport event formed round one of the 2020 Motor Mall (IoM) Manx Rally Championship.

l A fuller report will appear in this Thursday’s Manx Independent.

Results - top ten: 1, Martyn Jones/Rob Fagg (Vauxhall Nova GSi) 1hr 02min 56sec; 2, Timmy Collins/Cliona Collins (Mitsubishi Evo X) 1:03.34; 3, Sean Kelly/Jack Corlett (Mitsubishi Evo IX) 1:04.16; 4, Kex Walker/Danielle Matthews (BMW 325) 1:05.30; 5, Ross Tunney/Luke Tunney (BMW E36 Compact) 1:06.29; 6, Chris Heyes/Rick Sutcliffe (BMW E30) 1:07.03; 7, Andrew Dudgeon/Charles Harrison (BMW E36 Compact) 1:07.09; 8, David Cluckie/Jessica Quirk (BMW E30) 1:07.20; 9, Max Murray/Jake Subachus (Citroen C2) 1:07.27; 10, John Tear/Robert Turton (Ford Puma) 1.07.50.

chris boyde