Carnforth’s Arron Newby scored a third PokerStars Rally victory in a two-day event dominated by wintry weather at the weekend.

The TEG Sport Subaru driver and local co-driver Rob Fagg initially trailed 2018 winners Jamie Jukes and James Morgan.

The latter pair blazed through the opening stages on Friday evening at Keristal in their Spencer Sport Mitsubishi Mirage, but then suffered overshoots on icy roads on stages three and four at Ronague and Tosaby.

All of the crews struggled in the conditions and the rest of the evening’s action was abandoned as a consequence.

Newby and Fagg took a one-second lead into Saturday and went about extending that immediately in sleet and snow on Brandywell and Druidale.

Jukes/Morgan’s push to get back on level terms came to nought when they crashed heavily at Knocksharry on SS9, leaving Newby almost one minute in front and able to control the rally from there.

Stu Bainborough and Paula Swinscoe (Mitsubishi Evo IV) were the nearest challengers, until they hit rear grip issues and backed off the pace to secure the Motor Mall Manx Rally Championship title.

Preston’s Mark Kelly/Neil Colman set some sensational times on flooded roads that saw the final stage of the rally cancelled, to finish as runners-up ahead of Steve Colley/Mark Rodman (Evo IX) and Martyn Jones/Llion Williams (Vauxhall Nova).

CHRIS BOYDE

lFull report in Thursday’s Manx Independent.

PokerStars Rally (top 10), Manx Auto Sport, Friday/Saturday: 1, Arron Newby/Rob Fagg (Subaru Impreza) 58min 46sec; 2, Mark Kelly/Neil Colman (Ford Escort MkII) 59.26; 3, Steve Colley/Mark Rodman (Mitsubishi Evo VII) 59.38; 4, Martyn Jones/Llion ’Tractor’ Williams (Vauxhall Nova) 1:00.09; 5, Stu Bainborough/Paula Swinscoe (Mitsubishi Evo VI) 1:00.26; 6, George Collister/Graham Collister (BMW E30 328) 1:01.07; 7, Steven Ormond-Smith/Ealish Baxter (Mitsubishi Evo IX) 1:01.37; 8, Craig Jones/Ian Taylor (Mitsubishi Evo IX) 1:01.57; 9, Kevin Davies/Dylan Jenkins (Ford Escort MkII) 1:02:10; 10, Allan McDowall/Gavin Heseltine (Opel Kadett) 1:03.19.