Jason Pritchard has extended his lead in the Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship after taking maximum points on both days of the double-header Masterpixel Media Manx National Rally.

The Builth Wells driver had opened up a 57 second lead after a slippery points-scoring first eight stages on Friday, and had to do it all again if he was to score another maximum points haul on eight dry and fast stages on Saturday.

After a faultless first day, Pritchard lost time when his North Road Garage Ford Focus WRC05’s launch system failed on SS10 and then he left his braking a little bit too late for a corner on SS11, locked up and stalled the engine.

His gave his rivals a glimmer of hope, until he and co-driver Phil Clarke put their foot down in order to regain lost time and ensure another incredible victory on the Manx Auto Sport-organised event.

“It’s a fantastic feeling to win the Manx National Rally five times and to equal Kenny McKinstry’s record number of victories," said Pritchard.

"Hopefully we’ve got a few more wins in us yet. I love driving this Focus WRC, I love driving these Manx stages and when the two combine it’s just such a pleasure to do.

"It’s not easy to win here, but when it all clicks you feel in a comfort zone and it’s the best feeling in the world.

"Losing time with a launch problem and a stall with the overshoot on day two made it difficult to work out exactly where we were in terms of the Asphalt Championship points, but we gave it a good go on a couple of stages to try and make the time up and ensure we came away with maximum points from both days.”

The Manx roads are a favourite for Jamie Jukes, from Penrhiwllan, near Llandysul, and he jumped at the chance to come and test the Mitsubishi Mirage for the Spencer Sport team.

Together with James Morgan, Jukes picked up points for second place on Friday and fourth on Saturday, and was equally as pleased with the development work they’d achieved.

Making set-up changes before most stages didn’t always work, one contributed to a spin on Saturday for example, but most did, as they demonstrated what a fantastic car the Mirage is with some stunning times and the overall runners-up position. Given the number of World Rally Cars on the event, it was an impressive achievement.

“To be the best of the rest behind Jason is a fantastic result for the Mirage and realistically the best result we could have hoped for," said Jukes.

"I’m really pleased for the team, because they have worked hard on this car and you can see in the stage times how much it has leapt forward.

"Because the opportunity to test on Tarmac is so limited, and we have a very good engineer in the car co-driving, we have experimented a lot with set up on this event and we now have an extremely good car.

"I’m also pleased for myself – Jason is far better than your normal clubman and an extremely efficient and effective driver, so to finish behind him on the Manx National is no mean feat.”

Hugh Hunter/Rob Fagg picked up fourth placed points on Friday night. When their ex-François Duval Focus WRC05 was going well, they were flying – but that was far from the case most of the time.

A multitude of problems, including steering issues, a long brake pedal, stalling at a hairpin, problems with the light pod and then hitting a kerb hard cost them over four minutes on Friday, so scoring 26 points was just reward for their perseverance.

Saturday started almost as badly, with more brake problems, and a stall and one minute lost on the opening stage of the day. But thereafter the Ruthin driver flew, with the set-up changes made to his P+R Benn-prepared ex-works Ford helping him set three fastest stage times as he climbed to third overall – and scoring second placed points on Saturday’s Round 3.

2019 Masterpixel Media Manx National Rally

Top 10 Protyre Motorsport UK Asphalt Rally Championship overall finishers

1. Jason Pritchard/Phil Clarke (Ford Focus WRC05)….1hr 54mins 33.7secs

2. Jamie Jukes/James Morgan (Mitsubishi Mirage)….+3mins 19.8secs

3. Hugh Hunter/Rob Flagg (Ford Focus WRC05)….+5mins 01.7secs

4. Alan Kirkaldy/Cameron Fair (Ford Fiesta R5)….+5mins 20.9secs

5. Damian Cole/Max Freeman (Ford Focus WRC05)….+6mins 13.4secs

6. Darren Atkinson/Phil Sandham (Ford Escort Mk2)….+7mins 27.8secs

7. Wayne Sisson/Neil Shanks (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10)….+7mins 29.6secs

8. Bob Fowden/Den Golding (Subaru Impreza WRC S11)….+9mins 32.0secs

9. Oli Hopkins/Ian Taylor (Mitsubishi Mirage)….+21mins 31.5secs

10. Jonathan Stepney/Aled Daves (Peugeot 205 GTi)….+25mins 01.8secs