WEE MANX TALES NO.5 Grandstand/Saturday/1.45

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 12 SHENVALLEY

1st (17) Mark Perrott/Paul Morris (Escort WRC) 1.18.12.3
2nd (3) Ken McKinstry/Noel Orr (Impreza WRC) 1.18.15.1
3rd (14) Paul Bird/Andrew Bargery (Focus WRC) 1.19.14.0
4th (4) Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield (WRC) 1.19.33.4
5th (15) Craig Middleton/Robin Hernaman (Accent WRC) 1.19.56.3
6th (16) Steve Perez/Daniel Barritt (Focus WRC) 1.20.36.3
7th (9) Marcus Dodd/Stephen McAuley (Accent WRC) 1.20.49.7
8th (21) Geoff Jones/Rhydian Welson (Impreza N) 1.21.09.3
9th (2) Melvyn Evans/Martin Henry (Impreza WRC) 1.21.09.5
10th (20) Brendan Crealey/Steve Harris (Lancer N) 1.21.13.0 11th (31) Roy White/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 1.21.37.1
12th (32) Martin Sansom/Eiuan Thomas (Lancer N) 1.22.00.8

Through stages 10, 11 and 12 Mark Perrott and co driver Paul Morris have been setting the slippy and wet roads alight in their Escort world rally car, eclipsing the times of Kenny McKinstry to move into a slender lead here at the Grandstand service with 2 stages remaining. McKinstry looked very solid at the front of the field when the cars left for the Ballageeil stage, but Perrott was 6s faster than McKinstry there. On the Slieau Whallian stage Perrott was a full 32s faster than McKinstry, who had a spin. Then on the Shenvalley test Perrott was 14 up on McKinstry. Pretty amazing stuff. Kenny commented "Mark is going hard. We had an overshoot in stage 11 and couldn't get reverse, seemed to take forever. In these conditions, very very slippy, you have to be prepared to take risks. 20 out of 25 places are OK, 5 aren't". Perrott said "We're not going too bad, we are sliding, there's no side grip on our intermediate tyres. Some of the roads are well drained and grippy, but the back lanes are mostly wet and shiny". Paul Bird was even faster than Perrott through stage 10, but had a slow time in stage 11, so he has to be content with 3rd in the meantime. Roger Duckworth in 4th has been consistently quick over the last few stages, as has Craig Middleton, although Craig thought he wasn't going particularly well, his times were good. Steve Perez lost a few seconds with a stall at a hairpin in his Vodka Kick Focus. Marcus Dodd had a huge moment in stage 10 when he nearly slid off the road on top of David Mann's marooned Subaru. David, last year's winner here and current ANCRO champion, looks to be well out of this year's proceedings.

In Group N Geoff Jones continues to lead but Brendan Crealey was faster over the last 3 stages so there is less than 4s between the 2 with 2 stages remaining. Roy White broke the 15 minute barrier in the 16.68 mile stage 12 to really exert his authority in the Evo Challenge category. Roy changed a front brake caliper earlier, which seemed to help things, and was running a cut slick over the last few stages, which was fairly brave. Martin Sansom was faster than White in stage 11, but in overall terms White seems to have the definite edge at the moment. Anthony Willmington is now 45s behind Sansom in the gpN Evo race.

We mentioned above that David Mann had put his Subaru off the road. We have also lost contact with Steve Fleck, he hasn't appeared for the last few stages, nor has Paul Wedgbury.

Steven Quine continues to run as highest placed Manx driver, and he is just outside the leaderboard on a total of 1.22.43.4 and says his front wheel drive Escort F2 is more like a rear wheel drive car, sideways everywhere and spinning the front wheels.

In the Peugeot 206 Super Cup Stuart Jones is still shown as the clear leader over Gareth MacHale with Ieuan Rowlands 3rd, Mike Faulkner 4th and Rodney Wilton 5th. Alistair Moffatt has crashed his 206 in stage 11 and although emergency services have been called in, Alistair phoned Peugeot lady Stella Boyles to say that they were both OK

More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net

 

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