RALLY NEWS NO.5             Pickering Showgrounds/Sunday 09.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 11 LANGDALE
1st (14) Tapio Laukkanen/Ilka Riipinen (Impreza WRC) 1.08.23.6
2nd (11) Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Corolla WRC) 1.09.16.5
3rd (17) Jari-Matti Latvala/Miika Anttila (Focus WRC) 1.09.58.3
4th (12) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Impreza WRC) 1.10.53.0
5th (16) Steve Petch/John Richardson (Accent WRC) 1.12.02.6
6th (19) Barry Johnson/Stewart Merry (Impreza WRC) 1.12.23.9
7th (18) Chris Mellors/Craig Thorley (Escort WRC) 1.12.55.9
8th (3) Kris Meeke/Chris Patterson (Opel Corsa) 1.14.33.2
9th (34) Aki & Miika Teiskonen (Saxo) 1.15.36.0
10th (27) Neil Buckley/Dougie Redpath (Lancer N)  1.15.46.7
11th (23) John Lloyd/Pauline Gullick (Impreza) 1.16.13.2
12th (30) Neil Gatt/Steve Griffith (Impreza N) 1.16.26.1

Jari-Matti Latvala opened today's proceedings with fastest time through the Showgrounds stage, but then on the first of the forest stages, Langdale, the Finnish driver lost over a minute with a problem, reportedly involving an excursion into the scenery.  This allowed Pirelli British Rally Champion Jonny Milner into 2nd place.

In the Super 1600 category Kris Meeke set fastest category time through Langdale to exert his authority.  Kris is looking good in terms of the British Championship, but 22 year old Finn Aki Teiskonen has, as we suspected, come on to the leaderboard, and is in fact running 2nd on the road having contributed to the "promotional fund".  Interestingly, Teiskonen's mentor is Timo Kankkunen, Juha's brother.  The Saxo is a one off hire deal from Asquith Autosport, and is the car once driven by Niall McShea. Garry Jennings lost time on stage 11 when his Peugeot slithered into a ditch and had to be lifted out by marshals.

In the Peugeot 206 Super Cup Shaun Gallagher was fastest through stage 10. While Stuart Jones leads by 2s from Shaun Gallagher with Chris Moore 3rd a further 2s back. 4th is Philip Morrow, 5th Sebastian Ling and 6th Gareth MacHale. Jones had a bit of a panic this morning, firstly he forgot the keys of the rally car, when he did retrieve them and get the car going, a fuel line came adrift.

In Group N Neil Buckley continues to lead from Neil Gatt, Rob Swann and Roy White.  White promised a bit of a charge this morning, but spun in the showgrounds stage, and lost a few seconds.

Overnight class leaders included - John Moxon in the Skoda Felicia leading F1400 from Neil Burgess in the Mini.  Sami Vatanen led class F1600 in his Peugeot.  Marcus Foss led class F20 in his Almera from Rob Gill in his MGZR.

More news after stage 12 Pike Hill. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON  www.rallynews.net