RALLY NEWS NO.8                     Felindre - Service - Saturday 12.45

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 11 Halfway 2
1ST (7) Petter Solberg/Phil Mills (Subaru) 2.07.22.5
2ND (18) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Xsara WRC) 2.07.47.2
3RD (8) Tommi Makinen/Kaj Lindstrom (Subaru) 2.09.16.1
4TH (17) Colin McRae/Derek Ringer (Xsara WRC) 2.09.27.9
5TH (3) Harri Rovanpera/Risto Pietilainen (206 WRC) 2.10.53.3
6TH (5) Francois Duval/Stephane Prevot (Focus WRC) 2.11.52.5
7TH (2) Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets (206 WRC) 2.12.36.4
8TH (34) Manfred Stohl/Ilka Minor (206 WRC) 2.13.14.0
9TH (22) Roman Kresta/Jan Tomanek (206 WRC) 2.13.21.4
10TH (25) Daniel Sola/Alex Romani (Xsara) 2.13.46.2

The drivers had to do 4 stages between proper service areas. They nearly all picked a hard compound tyre to withstand the extra miles, but consequently grip levels were slightly down.  Rally leader Petter Solberg commented "We were pushing where we could, but I could have done with slightly softer tyres".  Sebastien Loeb looked a little subdued after today's first 4 stages and said "I just have to do my best for the moment, on the second time around (Crychan & Halfway) it was quite slippery".  Colin McRae said "I'm enjoying it a lot more today".  While Tommi Makinen commented "I'm enjoying the battle with Colin but I should have had softer tyres".

The pattern at the front was that Petter Solberg's Pirelli shod Subaru was fastest on all 4 stages, with Loeb generally 2nd fastest except once, in stage 10, where Colin McRae was 2nd fastest.  Generally however McRae and Makinen are swapping times in the race for 3rd place. The two started the day around about 11s apart, so that hasn't changed much.

Further down the top 10 Manfred Stohl has been going well and crept up from 10th to 8th.  Roman Kresta slipped from 8th to 9th.  Francois Duval has had a good run, 7th overnight, moved up to 6th with the retirement of Gilles Panizzi.  Toni Gardemeister had those transmission problems through stages 8 and 9.  At the fuel halt in Sennybridge he was able to do something with the electronics to make the clutch function a bit better, but was unable to make the differentials work correctly, and lost more time in stages 10 and 11.

Just outside the above leaderboard Pykalisto is into 11th. Jari-Matti Latvala is into 12th. Antony Warmbold 13th. Didier Auriol despite his delay on stage 8 when he put 2 wheels off the road, is 14th. Tobias Johansson still going extremely well in his Corolla WRC and holds 15th. Then we have the brilliant battle for Junior World Rally Championship honours between Swedish driver Daniel Carlsson and young Ulsterman Kris Meeke. Carlsson is 16th in his Suzuki, Meeke 17th. The gap was 12s leaving Sennybridge it is now down to 5.9s. McRae scholar Meeke commented at Sennybridge "On Crychan we ran a bit wide and slid into a ditch, it was no problem but it got a bit scrappy after that. Maybe I was overdriving on the fast stuff. But we went well on Halfway".  Baldacci in the Fiat is 3rd Junior.  We are getting news in that Brice Tirabassi has retired his Renault Clio with overheating problems.

In Group N after stage 9 Geoff Jones in his Subaru regained the lead he had held earlier in the rally, getting ahead of Gavin Cox's Lancer. Cox commented "There was a 90 right and we went 90 left, lost a few seconds there and then 15s with an excursion in Halfway".  Geoff Jones said "I'm driving at a pace I enjoy its nice to be back rallying. The car is fine, we had that gearbox change earlier in the rally, but all it needed since was a set of brake pads at the overnight service". Further stories, not in Group N, include Julian Reynolds struggling through stages 8, 9, 10 and 11 with a broken driveshaft in his gpA Subaru.  Jimmy McRae had a major overshoot in stage 8, lost a few seconds, otherwise really enjoying. Jim now 22nd overall.  Reynolds is 23rd.

Finally for now - news on the Mini of Neil Burgess & Jim Holder - still going strong. Jim saying "Going so well that we are afraid of what is coming next. The spectators and the marshals are fantastic in their support, its quite humbling".  More news later. BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON