RALLY NEWS NO.2                           Bournemouth/Friday  10.45pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2
1st (14) Paul Bird/Larry Carter (Focus WRC) 2.46.1
2nd (6) Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield (Impreza WRC) 2.49.1
3rd (9) Martyn Harrison/Jude Wylie (6R4) 2.51.2
4th (11) Steve Hendy/Mark Milton (Escort Cos) 2.51.7
5th (5) Mark Perrott/Paul Morris (Escort WRC) 2.52.5
6th (2) David Mann/Alun Cook (Impreza WRC) 2.54.3
7th (29) Craig Middleton/Robin Hernaman (Accent WRC) 2.54.6
8th (1) Marcus Dodd/Stephen McAuley (Corolla WRC) 2.55.7
9th (7) Steve Petch/John Richardson (Accent WRC) 2.57.2
10th (10) Phil Morgan/Martin Douglas (Impreza WRC) 2.57.5

The spectators braved the bitterly cold evening to watch the cars on this Rallye Sunseeker tackle the Bournemouth Promenade stage.  There were small patches of ice on the run in to some of the chicanes, which were quite hard to see in some places in the dark.  As can be seen above, Paul Bird was fastest from Roger Duckworth, however in the overall context of the rally the two short opening spectator stages will probably have little bearing on the final results after the forest stages. 

Paul Bird was driving a Focus WRC for the very first time, and commented at stage finish "The car's awesome, fabulous to drive".  Others not so happy included fellow Focus WRC runner, Steve Perez, who said at stage finish: "A disaster for me, first time through the stage was my first time on slick racing tyres and I found it so different. On the 2nd stage I stalled the engine, now I'm looking forward to the woods".  Hot favourite for victory, Andy Burton, clipped a wheel on his Peugeot Cosworth on the first stage, and suffered a puncture. He changed the wheel between stages 1 and 2 in "dead time" and is lying 35th overall.  It sounds disastrous, but it is only 22s behind the leader. Former ANCRO  Champion Mark Perrott clipped a front wheel on his Escort Cosworth, and although the rim was badly buckled the tyre did not deflate. 

Just outside the top 10 Ian Gwynne was 11th and Brendan Crealey 12th and leading Group N in his new Lancer.  Brendan was worried about the engine management system on the new car but the ADR mechanics managed to get it sorted just before the start of the rally. His only other worry was a broken intercom and co driver Steve Harris guided him through the stage on hand signals. Ollie O'Donovan was 13th and reported no major problems. Nik Elsmore 14th and fastest of the Evo Challenge competitors in his Ryan Champion hired car.  Will Nicholls was 15th. Stephen Harron 16th. Young Philip Morrow 17th and 2nd in the Evo Challenge. Barry Johnson 18th. Geoff Jones 19th in the new GpN Impreza, Geoff commented. "I'm happy with that, we had a good run, I just concentrated on keeping it clean".   Former road rally champion Jon Ingram was 20th in yet another Lancer.   Irish Tarmac Group N Champion, Roy White, forgot to switch his spotlights on until he was halfway through the first stage, which cost him a few seconds. White is 29th overnight.

Fastest of the Peugeot 206 Super Cup competitors over the 2 stages was Chris Moore.  Interestingly, Chris has been fastest on the first stage of virtually every Super Cup rally for the last 3 years.  Second of the Peugeots was Alistair Moffatt, 3rd Stuart Jones and 4th Ieuan Rowlands, 5th Paul Jones and 6th James Robertson. Just 6s cover the top 6 Peugeots.

Retirements on those opening 2 spectator stages included - Rod Bennett whose Lancia succumbed to an accident coming out of the gardens on to the promenade and Owain Beman whose Lancer suffered a damaged oil cooler. 
More news in the morning..BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON           www.rallynews.net