| RALLY NEWS NO.7 Sligo/Service/Saturday 10.45
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 12 BALLINAMALLARD
1st (1) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroen C4) 1.54.29.5
2nd (2) Dani Sordo/Marc Marti (Citroen C4) 1.55.19.9
3rd (9) Jari Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Focus WRC) 1.56.07.6
4th (4) Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Focus WRC) 1.56.50.0
5th (7) Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (Impreza WRC) 1.57.10.8
6th (18) Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Impreza WRC) 1.59.18.9
7th (16) Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr (Focus WRC) 2.02.31.1
8th (20) Gareth MacHale/Allan Harryman (Focus WRC) 2.03.11.2
9th (34) Mark Higgins/Scott Martin (Lancer N) Times to follow
10th (46) Armindo Araujo/Miguel Ramalho (Lancer N) 2.06.07.6
84 cars started the rally at Stormont on Thursday evening and 71 were still running as well as 8 continuing under Super Rally. Very wet and difficult conditions again greeted the drivers this morning. Andrew Nesbitt has slid his Subaru into a ditch on the Sloughan Glen stage and is out of the rally. Gareth Jones has reportedly also put his Focus off the road and Tim McNulty hasn’t come through the finish of stage 12 and is now very late.
Sebastien Loeb was fastest through both the Sloughan Glen and Ballinamallard stages this morning, the Citroen driver really living up to his mantle of king of the asphalt as he just clocks up fastest time after fastest time. Dani Sordo was annoyed at himself at running wide at a right hander in the Ballinamallard stage. He damaged the side of his Citroen and lost about 30s. Loeb commented that he is “not pushing hard”. The pressure has now eased on Sebastien with Sordo now 50s back. Latvala said that he enjoyed the stage and the mixed conditions. Hirvonen is still struggling to find right tyre choices and wishes the rally was over. Guy Wilks had a good run and now has a big time gap in front and behind. Petter Solberg took a chance on a slick tyre and has set good times this morning. Matthew Wilson messed up a square left corner around a bale, too long on the handbrake, stalled and then the Focus launch mode clicked in.
Gareth MacHale is setting good times again this morning, reckons there is more grip than he thought and was being too conservative. Aaron MacHale put his Focus into a field at a square left crest square right, lost maybe 30s. Colm Murphy was also in a field, we think it was the same field! Nutahara set a very good GpN time. Phillip Morrow had a disaster, breaking the drive shaft and losing a lot of time. Leszek Kuzaj finished the Ballinamallard stage with broken rear suspension on his Impreza. Austin MacHale had an overshoot and dropped 25s. Andreas Mikkelsen had a great stage time but now the front diff has stopped working.
Kris Meeke was to partake in the Super Rally this morning but there is an issue over the insurance on his Subaru to run in Super Rally and he is not now competing. That is the sad end of a dream for Kris and co driver Paul Nagle. Young Toni Kelly is running in Super Rally having broken a TCA in the suspension of her Honda yesterday. One of the big hard luck stories of the rally surrounds Kevin Shaw. He travelled all the way from Australia to compete in the ex Brendan Crealey ADR Lancer and at second service the car would not re-start. Eventually after 3 hours there was a problem discovered with a sensor and the car fired up but of course it was too late. Kevin is now competing in Super Rally. Michael Curran had a bit of a panic this morning when his Lancer wouldn’t re-start in parc ferme but he eventually made it.
Richard Cathcart is down in 31st overall after setting some stunning times in his Group N Subaru his overall placing spoiled by a 12m road penalty leaving service following a gear linkage problem. Ian Barrett also set some pretty impressive GpN times yesterday but he was knocked back when his Impreza alternator bolts sheared. Phillip Morrow was 29th overnight. Phillip lost time with an accident yesterday morning. Garry Jennings is down in 36th place having had gearbox troubles with his Lancer. Owen Murphy is driving a Fiesta this time and is leading his class. Colm Murphy had some problems yesterday and is down in 39th. Noel McCarrick is 43rd. Conor Byrne in the Modern Tyres Lancer is 44th. Emma McKinstry was 49th overnight just ahead of Roy White in the new FESP MG S2000. George Tracey was 51st in his Focus WRC. Andrew Mullen, co driven by his wife Elaine, the only husband and wife team in the rally, was 2nd in their class in their Saxo behind Adrian McElhinney’s Citroen C2.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Michael Patterson and David Kingham and Pamela Ballantine)
*For SMS results and news to your mobile TEXT RALLY ITC to 60066 (UK): 53030 (Irl): Cost 25p/30c |
