Cornwall rally driver Alan Cookson and London co-driver Julian Wilkinson will be heading over the Irish Sea destined for the Isle of Man where round four of the 2009 Pirelli MSA Gravel Rally Championship takes place with the Manx Telecom Rally next weekend.

The Douglas-based all-tarmac event marks the halfway point in the season which has so far proved reasonably successful for the Subaru WRC pairing who have scored points in all three rounds of the ANCRO series to date and hold sixth place overall in the standings, despite a major problem last time out when the crew spent over twenty minutes in a Kielder Forest ditch before being towed out by a fellow competitor.

However, it's in Class 9 that the Saltash driver is excelling as he leads the class following a hat trick of runner-up placings behind outright winners Sean Devine on Rally Sunseeker, and then Marcus Dodd on both the Brick & Steel Border Counties Rally and last month's Pirelli Tour of Cumbria to take a vital five point lead into the Manx.

"We're really looking forward to this event as it's our favourite of the year and one we hope to be able to maintain our class lead on in order to pick up the free tyres offered by Pirelli for class leaders after this event. For our team, these sorts of prizes are always very welcome and hopefully we can finish second in class or higher to pick them up" said Alan.

He continued: "We are also hoping the rallying gods are still with us after getting away with the result on the Tour of Cumbria which almost lost us that class lead. I think you always need a bit of luck to go your way so we're praying we still have some left in reserve!

"The car is having quite a few jobs done to ready it for this event after doing damage to the clutch and the bodywork in the infamous ditches of Kielder, but the TEGSport Team set the car up really well for the event last year, and it was working really well on the bumpy roads, and we were just inside the top ten when the gear linkage broke, ending our run.

"You never quite know what weather we will encounter but hopefully we will all be as ready as we can having had such a busy start to the year and we feel a little more confident and we hope to give our main sponsors Wisemans Dairies, SPAR and Vodka VK another top ten finish by tea time on Saturday night."

The Manx Telecom Rally gets underway at 19.00 on Friday 8th May with the traditional stage through the streets of Port Erin before a loop of stages in the fading daylight takes crews back to Douglas for the overnight halt. Saturday sees a full day of action around the Manx lanes starting at 08.45 before the finish at the TT Grandstand around 16.30.

For full details, including spectator information, go to www.manxrally.org and for championship positions and other information, visit www.gravelrally.co.uk

2009 Pirelli MSA Gravel Rally Championship Standings after Round Three

1 Daniel Barry (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 59
2 Simon Hughes (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 57
3 Marcus Dodd (Hyundai Accent WRC) 51
4 Nik Elsmore (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 49
5 Owen Murphy (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 47
6 Alan Cookson (Subaru Impreza WRC) 46
7 Alan Carmichael (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 43
= Steve Perez (Ford Focus WRC) 43
= Paul Bird (Ford Focus WRC) 43
10 Sean Devine (Subaru Impreza WRC) 25