|
WEE MANX TALES NO.4
Grandstand/Service/Saturday 11.45
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 9 Tholt-y-Will
1st (1) Kenny McKinstry/Noel Orr (Impreza WRC) 41.51.2
2nd (2) Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield (Impreza WRC) 42.07.0
3rd (5) Marcus Dodd/Andrew Bargery (Accent WRC) 42.41.0
4th (7) Steve Perez/Claire Mole (Focus WRC) 43.47.0
5th (10) Phil Collins/Damien Crawford (Escort) 44.24.7
6th (11) Colin McRae/Campbell Roy (Escort) 44.26.5
7th (20) Sebastian Ling/Aled Rees (Lancer N) 44.27.1
8th (19) Phillip Morrow/Daniel Barritt (Lancer N) 44.32.8
9th (21) Julian Reynolds/Patrick Walsh (Lancer N) 44.39.9
10th (35) Neil McCance/Ian Windress (Lancer N) 45.02.6
Jon Ingram took the lead of this RBSI Manx Rally on stage 7 but then crashed
his Subaru out on stage 8, Orrisdale. This allowed Kenny McKinstry
into the lead with Roger Duckworth 2nd and Marcus Dodd 3rd. Kenny’s
co driver Noel Orr commented when their Subaru got into service. “We
had a decent clean run down Druisdale, we knew Jon Ingram who had been
on a mission had gone off and we saw from the marks on the road that Roger
had had an overshoot at the church, so we didn’t push too hard.”
Kenny made a conservative tyre choice on the opening stage of the
day and then went for a harder tyre and really everything went well for
him over the loop. Roger Duckworth reported that they did indeed
struggle for grip up Abbeylands and Druisdale resulting in that overshoot.
As regards the misfire last night, the mechanics changed the plug leads
on a road section and that cured the problem.
We reported earlier that Marcus Dodd had turbo problems on Barroose.
The offending unit was changed in just over 6 minutes on a road section
and Marcus said. “The boys worked well, but we might have another
one to change before the day is over. This one doesn’t feel that
perfect and we’re only halfway through the rally”. Steve
Perez spun his Focus on the Tholt-y-Will test but otherwise had a good
run this morning and has worked his way up the leaderboard.
Phil Collins and Colin McRae continue to have their big battle with Colin
getting the upper hand over the last few stages and told us that a big
part of the problem last night was that they didn’t know that the
tyres they were using have an oil content, needed to be scrubbed in in
the dry and as it was the rubber just didn’t work because of this.
It has gone a lot better today for them. Phil Collins is trying
very hard to keep the former World Rally Champion at bay, and he had a
big 6th gear slide into a junction, overshot and because the car, with
its sequential change, was still in 6th, he stalled the engine. Phil joked.
“At least we were pointing in the right direction when we got everything
sorted!”
Sebastian Ling continues to lead GpN although he survived a bit of a moment,
his Lancer in the ditch very briefly just after the spot where Ingram
put his Subaru off the road. Sebastian said it could have been a
lot worse as Ingram had slowed him down and it was a very slippy place.
Phillip Morrow put his Lancer off the road on stage 8 but luckily didn’t
lose very much time and there was very little damage. Connor McCloskey
was another to slither into a ditch on a tightening 2 left but otherwise
he is going well and is lying just outside the leaderboard, just over
20s behind Neil McCance who has also had a good run today. Julian Reynolds
is keeping it all together and is very much in the GpN hunt, although
he had a few small moments in Orrisdale with an overshoot and a slight
running wide at a junction. Not so happy was Jock Armstrong. Jock
had his Impreza just behind the leading Lancers but dropped a load of
time through stages 8 and 9 when his Subaru blew its turbo. Jock is still
going but has dropped over 4 minutes. Also in turbo trouble with their
Subaru is Rob Smith/Alun Cook. Their’s went on fire in stage
7, they pulled off the road and got the fire out but were out of the rally.
Rob Watson was well up the order overnight, Rob and his co driver Bruce
Craig the highest placed Manx crew, but their Nova has stopped at the
cattle grid on the way up Tholt-y-Will. Other drivers reported them working
under the bonnet and there is no sign of them arriving into service as
yet. The rally is now running approximately 20 minutes down on schedule
as the Clerk of the Course John Skinner has held the front cars to allow
the tail to catch up, following the delays caused by Nik Elsmore’s
accident. Just outside the leaderboard is Steve Hendy, Connor McCloskey,
David Kyaston, Paul Curphey and Stephen Quine.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
