RALLY NEWS NO.4  Grandstand - Service - Saturday  10.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 7 UNION MILLS
1st (10) Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Corolla WRC) 35.05.6
2nd (15) Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila (Ford Focus WRC) 35.21.0
3rd (11) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 35.53.5
4th (14) Tapio Laukkanen/Ilka Riipinen (Imprezaa WRC) 35.55.0
5th (24) Paul Bird/Larry Carter (Accent WRC) 36.08.5
6th (17) James Thompson/Plug Pulleyn (Lancer) 36.12.7
7th (2) Gwyndaf Evans/Claire Mole (MG) 36.27.6
8th (8) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Impreza WRC) 36.55.9
9th (19) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 37.12.3
10th (23) Dougie Hall/Steve Egglestone (Lancer) 37.25.6  

Bright sunshine and drying roads greeted the 55 surviving crews on this long 2nd day of the Manx International Rally.  Latvala was fastest through the opening test, Union Mills, by 3s from Jonny Milner with Derek McGarrity a further 9s back.  Kenny McKinstry dropped out of the leaderboard - the Banbridge man was an overnight 3rd - Kenny's Subaru suffering a double puncture and a 3 minute time loss.  Young Kris Meeke has retired his Opel Corsa because of a broken driveshaft.  James Thompson had an overshoot at a junction, had to be pushed by spectators and dropped from 4th to 6th. Gwyndaf Evans is now the clear leader in the Super 1600 although we hear his MG may have some gear selection trouble in stage 8.

Seamus Leonard continues to lead gpN from Dickie Curran. Dickie was slow on that first Friday stage. Conor Byrne retired his gpN Lancer on first stage this morning with broken rear diff.

Looking back one stage, Aisling Dooris was leading class 1 from Harry Cathcart in a similar Swift Gti.  In class 2 Chris de Fortis is on his own in his Civic. Class 3 is led by Steve Loveridge (MG) from Marcus Foss in the Nissan. Foss's Almera had a down on power engine last night. Class 4 is for the big gpN machinery led by Seamus Leonard from Dickie Curran. Dickie's son Michael 3rd. Neil McCance 4th. Aaron MacHale 5th and Dermot Hanafin in the Fitz Samuel Insurance Impreza improved to 6th after earlier brake troubles. Harold Morley, over from Barbados for the rally, was 7th and Eddie Garry in his beautiful new Prodrive series 9 Impreza was 8th.

Robert Gough led cl.6 in the Micra Kit Car from Alyn Spiers. Alyn had Ian Porter step in to co drive at the very last minute. Glenn Wilson was the overnight leader in cl.6 from the similar Peugeot of Ivan Allen with Pat Kearney 3rd in his 206 example. Wilson was slowed initially with petrol pump troubles for 3 stages. Despite first stage intercom troubles, and a stage 3 spin at the hairpin, Ellya Gold led class 7 in his Peugeot 206 from Simon Wallis with Gabriel Martin 3rd in his Focus and Kate Heath 4th in the Seat. Wallis was slowed on the early stages by a bad tyre choice, finding the car undriveable in places on the wet roads. Gabriel Martin in the Focus was another to be delayed with fuel starvation trouble.

First day retirements included Roy White, whom we have already mentioned had front differential trouble in his Lancer. John Lloyd crashed his Impreza and Nigel & Michaela Cannell went with out mechanical troubles.

Martin Freestone leads the Post Historic section of the rally from David Stokes, both in Escorts.  Dessie Nutt was fastest of the Historics from Adrian Kermode in a similar Porsche 911. Alan Courtney was 3rd Historic, Philip Wylie 4th. Championship leader Steve Perez 5th.  More later.
BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON                  www.rallynews.net