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| RALLY NEWS NO.3 Thursday/Grandstand/10pm UNOFFICIAL L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 4 CASTLETOWN/BALLEY CASHTAL Eugene Donnelly cemented his lead on this Rally Isle of Man with fastest times through stages 3 and 4 which were repeat runs over the Castletown test. Andreas Mikkelsen had been fastest on the first run over the stage but he felt his Focus hesitating slightly on the later runs. Guy Wilks has been turning in some pretty impressive times to lead the group N category. Eugene Donnelly had to work very hard for his overnight 8.8s lead but still was in ebullient form when he steered his Reid Motorsport Subaru into the time control here at the TT Grandstand. He said “I’m very pleased with the power this time, we’ve been working at the set up and the car is going forward a lot better, brilliant off the line. Derek McGeehan and the Prodrive engineer Eddie Corr from Cookstown have done a terrific job. I’m learning to left foot brake for the first time, the engineers think that it will improve the traction especially through the tight stuff. This is what they call a non active car, whereas the Corolla had active suspension. I lost the rhythm of the left foot braking on the long stage, just for a couple of miles and I was dibbing and dabbing at the brakes. In fairness to Andreas he is going well considering his accident in Donegal. We could have picked maybe a softer compound tyre, it might have been better on the dusty stuff, but overall I’m well pleased”. Andreas Mikkelsen commented “The engine was hesitating, perhaps we have not enough fuel in, and we will check the computer now”. Paul Bird reported. “Just getting into it on the long stage took a lot of adjusting, we were over cautious on the fast stuff, comfort lifting everywhere, but how fast this was! I was s….ing myself!” Mark Higgins reported that he was trying fairly hard but the car was bouncing around a bit on the bumps and he lost a little confidence. Mark reckons that he needs a drop of rain to equalise the speed of the Mitsubishis! Guy Wilks said. “We made a good steady start, nothing drastic. We weren’t getting massive under steer but it was slightly unnerving. I would like more control from the front. On the very quick stuff after the chicane I was touching the brakes to drag the speed down a little”. His team mate Gwyndaf Evans said. “The car is not perfect everywhere but on this Island you have to compromise, so many different types of road”. Seamus Devine is in 13th place, Seamus having some problems with the intercom and also it is the first time that Noreen McDaid has co driven for his so they were still settling in. Noreen’s husband, the former Production World Champion Niall, was on hand to offer his advice and indeed Niall is trying to help Connor McCloskey with the set up of his new car, Connor saying that it seemed very nervous over the bumps and he also lost time when he caught up with Nick Kenny who was struggling through stage 2, his Subaru suffering a puncture/damaged wheel. Interestingly, local man Paul Curphey has another former Production World Champion helping him. Martin Rowe helped to set up Paul’s Lancer today and it is really showing in his times as he is lying 11th overall. Despite a problem with the front susp3ension Paddy White set some good times through the Castletown stage and was 14th here at the Grandstand. Swedish visitor Oscar Svedlund reckons the set up on his GpN Impreza needs a lot of improvement and also the brakes didn’t seem quite right, Oscar in 12th place. Killarney’s Kevin O’Donoghue looks like he may be out of the rally – Kevin’s Lancer developed a big engine problem in stage 2 which he thought was a turbo gone. The car then ran out of oil and he went into a farm towards the end of the stage, borrowed some agricultural oil, got going but it looks there could be a hole in a piston and he’ll be going no further. Robert Swan caught O’Donoghue’s struggling Lancer in the stage and lost a few valuable seconds, but Robert admits it was completely unavoidable and O’Donoghue pulled in at the first opportunity. Vesa Mikkola crashed his Civic into a field in stage 2 and doesn’t appear to have got going. Conrad Rautenbach leads class 6 in his Citroen just ahead of Darren Gass, both drivers complaining that their C2s were misbehaving over the bumps. Some overnight provisional class leaders include the young Swede Andreas Sjolander in his Fiesta in Cl.3: Young Donegal girl Toni Kelly leads cl.7 in her Civic and is 28th o/a. James Wozencroft leads cl.2 in his works Suzuki. Lorna Smith in the 2nd works Suzuki is further back in 39th o/a and 2nd in class. More news in the morning: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
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