RALLY NEWS NO.3                           Canford Park/Service/Saturday 10.30am

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 5 Ashley Heath
1st (1) Marcus Dodd/Stephen McAuley (Corolla WRC) 13.18.9
2nd (4) Barry Johnson/Stewart Merry (Impreza WRC) 13.20.6
3rd (17) Brendan Crealey/Steve Harris (Lancer N) 13.23.2
4th (7) Steve Petch/John Richardson (Accent WRC) 13.33.1
5th (10) Phil Morgan/Martin Douglas (Impreza WRC) 13.39.8
6th (15) Stephen Harron/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 13.47.0
7th (16) Steve Perez/Plug Pulleyn (Focus WRC) 13.47.2
8th (8) Bob Ceen/Alistair Douglas (Impreza 555) 13.49.6
9th (14) Paul Bird/Larry Carter (Focus WRC) 13.51.4
10th (11) Steve Hendy/Mark Milton (Escort Cos) 13.52.0

THE ABOVE RESULTS ARE, AS YET, VERY UNOFFICIAL - the wintry conditions are causing drivers and officials of this Rallye Sunseeker all sorts of difficulties.  The stages so far have been very patchy with bits of ice and snow, then stretches of bare gravel, although even there is quite icy.

Rally leader Marcus Dodd brought his Pirelli shod Corolla into the finish of the Hurn stage and commented "Braking for the corners is very difficult, very treacherous, its so easy to geet caught out".  David Mann reported an excursion into a ditch and a very fraught Andrew Burton told of spins in stages 3 and 4. 

Martyn Harrison has retired his Metro 6R4 after clipping a chicane and dislodging something into the radiator.  The car finished the stage but the temperature gauge was off the clock.

In Group N Brendan Crealey is putting some stunning times. Nik Elsmore is 2nd in the Ryan Champion hired Lancer and Martin Sansom 3rd in another Lancer.  Dorian Rees and Rory Galligan are well in the hunt. We also had unofficially young Philip Morrow lying just outside the top 3 in GpN, but this has to be confirmed.

There was a change to the overnight positions in the Peugeot 206 Super Cup.  Paul Jones was adjudged the winner when the times were re-calculated, relegating Chris Moore to 2nd. Moore redressed the situation by leading after stage 3 this morning. Young Gareth MacHale moved into 2nd, 3s back, then it was Ieuan Rowlands 3rd, Moffatt 4th, Stuart Jones 5th and Faulkner 6th.

More news later….hopefully.  Well…..it's a bit of a Dugong really.

BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON   (with thanks to Andrew Haill):  
www.rallynews.net