RALLY NEWS NO.11                Cardiff - Saturday evening…late

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 15 Cardiff Super Special
1st (7) Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (Subaru) 2.48.55.4
2nd (18) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Xsara WRC) 2.49.36.6
3rd (8) Tommi Makinen/Kaj Lindstrom (Subaru) 2.51.20.6
4th (17) Colin McRae/Derek Ringer (Xsara WRC) 2.51.26.8
5th (3) Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (206 WRC) 2.53.29.3
6th (5) Francois Duval/Stephane Prevot (Focus WRC) 2.54.49.1
7th (2) Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets (206 WRC) 2.55.24.6
8th (34) Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor (206 WRC) 2.56.31.2
9th (22) Roman Kresta/Jan Tomanek (206 WRC) 2.56.31.9
10th (24) Juuso Pykalisto/Risto Mannisenmaki (206 WRC) 2.56.59.3
11th (20) Jari-Matti Latvala/Mika Anttila (Focus WRC) 2.58.56.3
12th (14) Didier Auriol/Denis Giraudet (Fabia WRC) 3.02.15.7
13th Antony Warmbold: 14th Tobias Johansson: 15th Toni Gardemeister: 16th Daniel Carlsson: 17th Kris Meeke:

On the Super Special stage Petter Solberg was fastest yet again to make it a clean sweep of quickest times through the Saturday for the Norwegian driver.  He may have only been 0.4 of a second faster than Sebastien Loeb, but at this level every fraction counts.  Colin McRae and Tommi Makinen were on the next second, McRae faster by 0.2 of a second. The Petter phenomenon is quite remarkable, the extrovert Solberg attracting a huge following now wherever he goes….particularly of attractive young ladies!  It was compared to the "Beatlemania" from years ago.  Sebastien Loeb broke the stage record in the Super Special tonight, Then Petter set yet another new record.  In celebration he did one of his party tricks of driving his Subaru around the arena while standing on the door sill outside the car!

Further down the list Daniel Carlsson (Suzuki) continues to lead the Junior WRC contenders from Kris Meeke (Opel) with Mirco Baldacci 3rd (Fiat).  Further to Kris Meeke's time loss in stage 14, the Corsa stopped on the way into the stage and the crew discovered that the wiring to the throttle body was damaged.  They managed to fix it themselves, got through the stage with about 75 per cent power, a very rough engine, and using a lot of fuel. The car stopped again after the stage and they managed to fix it again to get into service with seconds to spare.  They were fastest of the Juniors in the Super Special.

In Group N Geoff Jones continues his brilliant run and has moved up to 22nd,, just behind Jim McRae. Gavin Cox is holding on to 2nd in GpN, Elsmore 3rd, Belgian driver Bijvelds is 4th. Gwyndaf Evans leads his class N3 from Tony Jardine, both in MGs.  The Neil Burgess/Jim Holder Mini is still going, but had a lot of trouble in Resolfen and is now 47th and last, over an hour behind the car in front. The Mini shed an alternator bolt in Resolfen, the belt came off and got tangled in the fan belt, and then all sorts of things came adrift. Neil and Jim got their hands cut repairing the damage, but made it through, Neil saying "We didn't think we would make it in time - it was very emotional. We had to bring the car through the stage on dipped headlights and sidelights to save the battery".   More news in the morning…BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON