Flixton's David Mann heads into an unavoidable mid-season break from the Richard Egger Insurance MSA Asphalt Championship more than content with recent work that leaves him lying in second in the title race.

Flixton's David Mann heads into an unavoidable mid-season break from the Richard Egger Insurance MSA Asphalt Championship more than content with recent work that leaves him lying in second in the title race.

Welsh co-driver Alun Cook, who currently leads the navigators' championship, is due to get married on the weekend of the next round - the Sligo Stages Rally on July 12 - so Mann's Kumho Tyres Subaru Impreza isn't due to be seen in competition again until the Mewla Rally on August 30.

The duo signed off for their summer “siesta” with a superb second place overall on the Jim Clark National Rally, fourth of the

seven-round series, on May 22/23.

Their Nortech Motorsport tended Subaru was unable to stop runaway championship leader Melvyn Evans, whose car is considerably newer than Mann's and who sped to a fourth successive win in the Scottish borders.

However, Mann's runner-up spot, over half a minute clear of nearest challenger Simon Mauger's Ford Escort, strengthened his position in the all-asphalt surface series, as

defending champion and 2008 Jim Clark Rally winner David Kynaston also crashed out of contention on the first of the two days of competition.

Each crew is allowed to drop their two lowest scores at the end of the championship and, with four out of four fine finishes to date, the omission of round five shouldn't affect Mann and Cook's championship position too seriously.