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RALLY
NEWS NO.4 Armagh – Friday –
9.45pm
UNOFFICIAL
LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 (end of Leg 1)
1st
(1) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 49.49.5
2nd
(4) Tapio Laukkanen/Ilka Riipinen (Impreza WRC) 51.17.4
3rd
(6) Jari-Matti Latvala/Miika Antila (Focus WRC) 52.04.6
4th
(3) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 52.23.8
5th
(5) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Impreza WRC) 52.43.9
6th
(2) Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Corolla WRC) 53.22.2
7th
(10) Gwyndaf Evans/Claire Mole (MG ZR) 53.35.5
8th
(12) Maurice Gass/Andrew Cullen (Impreza WRC) 53.51.5
9th
(11) Kris Meeke/Dave Senior (Corsa) 53.56.8
10th
(22) Leon Pesticcio/Tim Sturla (Punto) 54.03.0
Andrew Nesbitt continues to dominate this
rally with fastest time after fastest time. The Cross Refrigeration man was in
top form when he arrived in here to his home city of Armagh, saying "We
were sideways most of the way through those stages, extremely slippy and indeed
we backed off a little in places. We adjusted the clutch earlier otherwise the
car is fine. The rally is only starting for me in the morning". Second on
the road Jonny Milner was well off his usual pace throughout this first leg, the
current Pirelli British Rally Champion saying "I was just trying to get
through tonight". Deep down though one wonders is there more to his lack of
speed. When quizzed Jonny said "No"….."The cars fine"…..Tapio
Laukkanen is looking fairly solid in 2nd place. While Latvala has
moved ahead of McGarrity into 3rd. Derek commented "I was on
totally the wrong tyres, didn’t even have a different type of spares that I
could change to. I was in the ditch 3 times. I still don’t know what to do to
get on to Andrew’s pace – is it dry for him or something?"
Jari-Matti Latvala said "The car is
working well. On that last stage there were 2 sections good, dry. One section
slippy. It is quite nice to drive in the darkness, I like it, only when no
fog". (There was quite a bit of fog in places through stages 5 and 6).
Leon Pesticcio had led Super 1600 leaving
service after stage 3, but Gwyndaf Evans has got ahead. The Welshman saying here
at service "Glad to get out of there, its bad enough when you can see the
mud, wasn’t pleasurable at all, but a special challenge as well".
Pesticcio’s main problem over the last couple of stages was that his Punto
lights weren’t up to the job. Kris Meeke was faster than Evans through stages
4 and 5, dropped 6s in stage 6. Kris said "I had an overshoot in there but
apart from that it went reasonably well. The conditions are tricky, going on
dangerous". Ryan Champion felt that his Puma was handling a bit better than
earlier but in the conditions it was very hard to tell. Ryan’s total 55.04.0.
Barry Clark is still going but well back in his 1600 Puma. Garry Jennings is now
on a total 57.03.7 – apart from his gear change problems and the read out on
the dash giving him wrong information, the lights went on the blink through
stage 7. Co driver Gordon Noble is even having to read the pace notes by the
light of a small torch!
In Group N Seamus Leonard is setting the
pace, his total 54.19.2. Roy White is 2nd in 54.40.3. Andrew Stewart
54.46.5. Leonard had no big problems through stages 5 and 6 while Roy White had
centre differential difficulties with his Lancer, and had to stop and switch the
engine off several times to try to stop the diff from locking up. Andrew Stewart
struggled in the darkness a little, as did Dickie Curran, the latter saying
"I’m too long new, can’t see in the dark now and it didn’t help when
I couldn’t find the right switches for the lights".
No sign of Eamonn Boland here at service
following his 2nd fire. Just outside the top 10 is Dougie Hall on
54.12.8 in his GjpA Lancer.
More news in the morning. BRIAN AND LIZ
PATTERSON (www.rallynews.net)
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