RALLY NEWS NO.8 Ettelbruck..Sunday 4.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 17 - BOURSCHEID
1st (4) Ian Greer/Dean Beckett (Corolla WRC) 2.23.46
2nd (1) Rocco Theunissen/E.Mombaerts (Corolla WRC) 2.24.26
3rd (3) Hans Stacey/Daniel Sonck (Impreza WRC) 2.25.20
4th (31) Peter & Piet Bijvelds (Lancer N) 2.30.33
5th (7) Francois Duval/Patrick Grignet (Lancer N) 2.31.28
6th (36) Johan Deen/H. Scholtalbers (Lancer N) 2.32.13
7th (14) Edwin Abbring/Ed Van Kessel (Celica) 2.33.51
8th (8) David Croes/Emmanuel Debois (Lancer N) 2.33.54
9th (39)Jan de Winkel/R.Van Hoek (Golf) 2.34.37
10th (20) Bob & Tom Colsoul (Lancer N) 2.34.50

Ian Greer was wiping the sweat from his brow when he arrived in here after stage 17. The Hillsborough man saw that Bourscheid test as critical in his bid for victory on this Tour of Luxembourg. Ian stopped the clocks on 12.47 after the 21km test. His co driver Dean Beckett was out of the car like a rocket, waiting anxiously to see how the similar Corolla WRC of Rocco Theunissen had fared. When the Dutch driver's Toyota came to a halt the answer was not long in coming...Greer was 7s faster to push the gap between the 2 cars to 40s with just 1 stage remaining.

Further back, there was drama. The news came filtering in that Eamonn Boland's blue Impreza WRC was stopped, and Maaskant's Lancer had crashed out of the top 10. That wasn't uppermost in Greer's mind however, as he recounted "I was trying very hard without being caught out. I did clip one small post and happily didn't puncture. That's the 3rd time some of the stage has been used and it was very gravelly in places. The tyres were perfect, the gearchange was OK, but I'll tell you that was two boys at the bit!" Rocco Theunissen said "We picked too hard a tyre, for the first 8kms they did not warm up and also at a hairpin right I stalled the engine". Third placed Hans Stacey had his moments of drama also when he scraped the side of his Subaru on a post, and then put a rear wheel in the ditch. The mud filled rim vibrated to stage finish. Eventually, Boland arrived into service and told the story of his 10 minute delay which dropped him from 4th to 15th at a stroke.."The gearchange started to give trouble and eventually we only had neutral. I stopped the car, jacked it up, Anthony got a concrete post out of the ground to wedge the back wheel and I got under the car and hammered it into gear. Although I served my time as a mechanic I wasn't sure what gear it was in, I was hoping it wasn't reverse! Would you believe it, Plum Tyndall was there with the TV camera. Is there any prize money for 15th??"

Further back, Ben Briant lost a few seconds when his Lancer hit a bank but otherwise OK. Patrick Elliott tried that stage on hard slicks, the car was working well but then slid into a ditch. A back wheel filled with mud and Patrick eased off towards stage finish, to lose at least half a minute. Dick Curran moved up to 18th after stage 17, Robert Woodside in the Ford Puma 20th...

more after stage 18..

BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON