RALLY NEWS NO.6                        Cardiff/Friday evening…late

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 7 (Friday overnight)
1st (7) Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (Subaru) 1.32.37.2
2nd (18) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Xsara WRC) 1.32.45.2
3rd (8) Tommi Makinen/Kaj Lindstrom (Subaru) 1.34.09.4
4th (17) Colin McRae/Derek Ringer (Xsara WRC) 1.34.20.8
5th (3) Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (206 WRC) 1.35.18.4
6th (21) Gilles Panizzi/Herve Panizzi (206 WRC) 1.35.26.5
7th (5) Francois Duval/Stephane Prevot (Focus WRC) 1.36.12.4
8th (22) Roman Kresta/Jan Tomanek (206 WRC) 1.36.42.4
9th (2) Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets (206 WRC) 1.36.57.5
10th (34) Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor (206 WRC) 1.37.25.5
11th (24) Juuso Pykalisto/Risto Mannisenmaki (206 WRC) 1.37.33.6
12th (25) Daniel Sola/Alex Romani (Xsara) 1.37.48.0

Norwegian driver Petter Solberg carries an 8 second advantage into the Saturday leg of this Wales Rally GB, Petter determined to go for the win and rueing his stage 6 puncture, which would have seen his leading margin in his Subaru Impreza WRC closer to 20s than 8.   Solberg was fastest on the stage 7 Super Special by just over a second from Tommi Makinen, with Colin McRae 0.6 of a second slower.  The battle between these two former World Rally Champions for 3rd place should be no less interesting than the tussle in front through the Saturday stages. Main drama on the stage 7 Super Special was the retirement of Alistair Ginley who cooked his Focus WRC clutch on the start line and the car stopped about half a mile in, necessitating a tow truck to be called.  Steve Perez in the Vodka Kick Focus WRC was slowed when his windscreen misted up after the water splash and he couldn't see where he was going. Steve is unfamiliar with his Focus and it took him a while to figure out which switches to click to sort the problem out.

Saturday's running order is a reversal of the leading cars in that Toni Gardemeister will run first on the road, Antony Warmbold 2nd in his Focus WRC, Auriol 3rd, Latvala 4th and so on. Loeb runs 14th on the road, Solberg 15th.

Looking back to the results after the penultimate stage, Rheola, Daniel Carlsson led the JWRC contenders in his Suzuki from young Kris Meeke in the Opel by just over 8s.  Baldacci in the Fiat was 3rd, Tirabassi was 4th. Jean-Joseph in the Renault was actually 4th in the class A6 but he is not registered for Junior WRC. Interestingly, Carlsson and Meeke are 20th and 21st overall while the highest placed Group N car is Gavin Cox in his Lancer in 28th. 2nd in gpN is Geoff Jones in his Subaru, 3rd Bijvelds. 

Gwyndaf Evans leads class 3 from Tony Jardine, both in MGs. They are the only 2 runners in the class. Neil Burgess may be last in the classification, but leads class 5. Neil and co driver Jim Holder in their Mini are getting enormous attention and support,  really catching the imagination and happily their only problem so far have been a few rattles in the rear of the car.  Some interesting positions outside the overall leaderboard include Tempest Rally winner Latvala in 13th. Didier Auriol 14th despite all his transmission troubles. Antony Warmbold 15th.  Tobias Johansson 16th. Tapio Laukkanen 18th and hoping to have a new transmission fitted to his Subaru before the start of the Saturday leg. Julian Reynolds is 22nd, Jimmy McRae 26th. Eamonn Boland 32nd. Steve Perez in the Vodka Kick Focus WRC is 35th, Steve struggling to come to terms with his new car.   Penrith man Dougie Hall retired his Lancer on stage 5 with mechanical problems. More news after stage 9 Halfway: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON