RALLY NEWS NO.5 Ettelbruck..Saturday 7pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARED AFTER STAGE 10 - END OF LEG 1
1st (4) Ian Greer/Dean Beckett (Corolla WRC) 1.27.38
2nd (1) Rocco Theunissen/E.Mombaerts (Corolla WRC)1.28.13
3rd (3) Hans Stacey/Daniel Sonck (Impreza WRC) 1.28.46
4th (9) Eamonn Boland/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC)1.30.53
5th (31) Peter & Piet Bijvelds (Lancer N) 1.31.54
6th (32) Mark Maaskant/Pierre Krieger (Lancer N) 1.33.00
7th (36) Johan Deen/H.Scholtalbers (Lancer N) 1.33.19
8th (7) Francois Duval/Patrick Grignet (Lancer N)1.34.22
9th (14) Edwin Abbring/Ed Van Kessel (Celica) 1.34.40
10th (39) Jan de Winkel/R.Van Hoek (Golf) 1.34.49

No.1 seed Rocco Theunissen climbed from his Corolla here at Ettelbruck service after a hard day's rallying and commented regarding the last few stages..."No problem, just this man Greer, he is crazy, so fast". Ulsterman Greer laughed when he heard this, and said "You know after the first few stages when we found the going difficult, then we relaxed and the times really came, everything flowed, we've had no problems." Interestingly, this is Greer's first rally ever outside Ireland, and he went on to say "The indicator on the gear selection has packed in completely, so I just count the up and down changes, the rev counter is stuck at 5000, but otherwise the car is good. I'm really enjoying the rally, the people are so friendly, waving flags, handing sweets into the car at the ends of stages".

Third placed Hans Stacey commented "We are quite happy really with 3rd, this is our first big event in this car, we think it is under geared, and we learn all the time". Eamonn Boland has kept a very steady pace to maintain his 4th position, and reports no troubles. Francois Duval dropped quite a few places on the leaderboard, unofficially down to 8th, when his Lancer blew a turbo in stage 10, and his time for that stage was well over 2mins off the pace. Patrick Elliott continues to improve as the day progresses, and he reckons he will try a harder compound tyre tomorrow. The Subaru is moving about quite a lot on the softer rubber, and as Patrick learns the car he is able to take it closer to the limit. Edwin Abring continues to hold a place in the top 10, he is intent on scoring points in the Dutch Championship, of which this is a round, he is a newcomer to this car also, and finds the suspension not quite correct, and says the main thing is to have a lot of fun!

Further bad news for the Irish contingent is that Multis Computers man Sean Keenan has retired the CSI hire Celica with a blown turbo in stage 10. Robert Woodside dropped 4 minutes in stage 9 when he misheard a pace note -Robert's helmet was turned down at scrutineering, so he borrowed Chris Birkbeck's and the intercom was not so clear. The notes read - flat left into flat right into square right - and Robert thought the last note was another flat. Happily there was a hole in the hedge and the Puma careered down a field, to get stuck in the mud. No damage and Robert thinks he still leads the class - any chance of F2 glory has gone. We reckon Robert & Chris are 24th now.

More news in the morning..BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON