Philip Morrow sacked by Mitsubishi just before his home rally

Morrow Philip Morrow sacked by Mitsubishi just before his home rally

Philip Morrow has been sensationally sacked by the Mitsubishi UK rally team just before his home event the Ulster Rally. Autosport were the first publication to hint at the decision but it was confirmed today by Mitsubishi spokesman Simon Slade.

Sammy Hamill spoke today to Philip, who is naturally devasted, in the Belfast Telegraph.

Belfast Telegraph article:

The 24-year-old from Lisburn, a member of Britain’s elite young driver squad, has been left devastated by the decision to drop him just weeks before his home round of the series.

He was informed of the decision in a phone call on Wednesday telling him that the Mitsubishi team would not be supplying him with a car for the Ulster International on August 22/23 or for subsequent rounds of the championship.

Morrow won his place in the team alongside British champion Guy Wilks following his runaway success in the 2007 Mitsubishi Evo Challenge.

He won six of the rounds and was unveiled as a member of the UK Mitsubishi team at the Autosport International Show at the start of the year.

But the transition to works driver has not gone smoothly and after finishing fourth behind his team-mate on the opening round, the Pirelli International, he crashed heavily on the first stage of the Jim Clark Rally in Scotland.

At the weekend he was running in fifth place in treacherous conditions on the Rally Isle of Man when he crashed again, although his Lancer was repaired to enable him to continue and finish 16th.

“They told me I had exceeded my budget because of the accidents in Scotland and the Isle of Man,” said Morrow, “but the damage wasn’t all that severe – not when you consider Guy Wilks’ car was completely written off in Scotland.

“I’m gobsmacked and devastated. I’ve worked for four years to achieve my dream of a works drive and to have it taken away from me after just three rallies is a bitter disappointment.

“I know things haven’t gone well for me but it takes time to fit into the environment of a works team, especially one like Mitsubishi where everything revolves around Guy who is not only a great driver but a strong personality as well.

“There were issues with the set-up of the car and maybe I wasn’t strong enough in getting my point of view across but, as the new boy, it is difficult to stand up and tell a championship-winning team you’re not happy with the way they are preparing the car.

“In the Isle of Man, for instance, the car was awful, virtually undriveable in the wet conditions, and I went off when I wasn’t pushing hard at all, just driving to finish. Guy was also off the road three or four times although he finished third.

Mitsubishi spokesman Simon Slade insists it was a decision which was not taken lightly – and was taken at board level.

“It was a business decision,” he said. “The costs of running the team are going up because of the accidents but the results have been going down.”

Official statement by Mitsubishi UK today

The Mitsubishi Motors UK Rally Team has today confirmed that Phillip Morrow has been released from his contract as a works driver for the remainder of the 2008 season.
The decision was taken following the outcome of the first three rounds of this year’s Tesco 99 Octane MSA British Rally Championship.
General Manager for Ralliart and team principal Paul Brigden said:
“This is a very unfortunate situation that we find ourselves in and we are disappointed to see Phillip leave the team. We trust that this decision with allow him to pursue his career in another direction and we wish him the very best of luck with his future rallying campaigns.”
Mr Brigden continues: “Following this decision we will now reassess our strategy for this year’s remaining three rallies to see if we can still achieve our goal of retaining the British Team’s and Driver’s titles.”

The team will make an announcement as to whether it will run one or two cars for the rest of the season at the beginning of August. It now turns its attentions to round four of the British Championship, the Todds Leap Ulster Rally, which takes place on 22nd & 23rd August.

Apparently, Richard Cathcart has withdrawn from the Evo series as wasn't happy by the comments of the Mitsubishi team manager made in Autosport about Philip's driving ability and the Evo challenge drivers in general. Others are expected to follow from the series.

Irish rally fans have been expressing their disgust at the decision on various rally forums and even expressing that they will boycott Mitsubishi products. They cannot understand the decision taken, especially the reason given, as Wilks' burnout on the Jim Clark has been the biggest cost to the team this season. Let's hope Philip gets another drive for the rest of the season and proves Mitsubishi wrong in their decision.

Richard Cathcart's nav Martin Brady issues a statement

It is correct to say that Richard & I will not be continuing with the Evo challenge and that his car is now for sale.
A number of factors have influenced this decision, but not least of all comments made in Autosport this week and attributed to the Mitsubishi team principal. It could be argued that the comments in that article depict the drivers of the Evo Challenge as second division and not capable of the "step up" to BRC level, and it gives the impression that Evo challenge graduates would be of no assistance to Mitsubishi in attaining their goal of the Manufacturers crown.
It would be Richards belief and mine too, that if David Bogie, or Richard, or Danny Barry or Keith Cronin etc were to take a place in the BRC works team that they would be eminently capable of taking the "step up" and driving with the team to victory in the overall championship and/or the manufacturers crown.
Privately we had hoped that the prize would be a full season's drive as it has been in recent years. Also we had hoped it would be announced much earlier in the season but it seems this was not possible, and while an official announcement regarding the prize for this years winner is imminent it is my understanding that it will be a prize drive for one rally only and as such it will not be a prize comparable with other years of the Evo challenge. We had expected based on previous years that we would be achieving a years drive should we be lucky enough to win the series.
It was a difficult decision to take but after discussing it between us we feel it was the right decision. To continue on with the championship as it stands is not suitable for us given the time and financial effort required.
We enjoyed our time in the series, especially the battles with David, it was our debut year in the championship and in an Evo 9 and I hope we acquitted ourselves well with our pace, my very rudimentary maths tells me that we were fastest on 22 of 47 possible stages. We take away some great memories, like the 3 brakes on our wagon in Sunseeker and the resulting sideways moments, the bitter ones like loosing the Manx and 3rd o/a at the eleventh hour.
The lads at DGM did us proud all year and were a fantastic help, which we expected given they were reigning champions in the series having been with Philip for all the years leading up to his victory, to them thanks, it would have been great to win it for you again this year.
Best of luck to those still in the hunt for the championship especially David & Kevin they were top class competitors all year.

I have sympathy for Philip Morrow and of course his co driver Daniel Barrit it is a harsh blow for them and hopefully they can come back from what has been an unlucky start to the season and get out on the remaining rounds of the championship and get a chance to display their speed.
Regards
Martin Brady