RALLY NEWS NO.6                    Pickering Showground/Sunday 10.45am

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 12 PIKE HILL
1st (14) Tapio Laukkanen/Ilka Riipinen (Impreza WRC) 1.15.56.8
2nd (11) Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Corolla WRC) 1.16.52.9
3rd (17) Jari-Matti Latvala/Miika Anttila (Focus WRC) 1.17.52.2
4th (12) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Impreza WRC) 1.18.35.6
5th (16) Steve Petch/John Richardson (Accent WRC) 1.19.48.7
6th (19) Barry Johnson/Stewart Merry (Impreza WRC) 1.20.16.0
7th (18) Chris Mellors/Craig Thorley (Escort WRC) 1.20.49.9
8th (3) Kris Meeke/Chris Patterson (Opel Corsa) 1.22.47.3
9th (34) Aki & Miika Teiskonen (Saxo) 1.23.59.2
10th (27) Neil Buckley/Dougie Redpath (Lancer N) 1.24.08.0 
11th (23) John Lloyd/Pauline Gullick (Impreza) 1.24.28.6
12th (30) Neil Gatt/Steve Griffith (Impreza N) 1.24.44.6

Tapio Laukkanen was the epitome of coolness when he arrived in here to service after stage 12, the Finnish driver saying "We've had a good run this morning, and when I heard that Latvala was off the road I am not in a rush now. The stages have quite good grip, although there are some damp places where we are a little bit cautious."  Latvala's problems promoted Jonny Milner into 2nd, and this puts him on to an even better course to retain his Pirelli British Rally Champion title. Jonny saying "We're still going at a fair pace, the stages are really nice".  Jari-Matti Latvala explained his accident "It was a very long flat out left, and then 80 brake for left four, but perhaps it was only 50 metres, but we went straight off the road into logging and stumps. The car would not move then, and I got out.  There was a big log jammed in front of the wheel, I moved it and drove out in first gear, slowly. I had a little luck in the super special and then tried to go same speed as yesterday, maybe pushing too hard, but you cannot win if you do not try. Luckily there is no big damage, now I must finish the rally and there are not enough stages left to make any difference to Milner or Laukkanen". 

Behind the top 3 Austin MacHale holds firmly on to 4th place, the Dubliner reporting no major problems, and also praising the standard of organisation of the rally, saying "Best of the season, good atmosphere, the club is way ahead, really recommend it to anyone".  Steve Petch reported no problems this morning, while Barry Johnson had a lucky escape when he went off the road on a bad left hander about a mile from the end of Pike Hill.  His Subaru clattered into a ditch and ripped a tyre off the rim, possible gear linkage trouble as well, but he is still going.  Chris Mellors, still nicely placed in 7th, was saying an interesting thing after those first 2 stages this morning. When they did their recce on Friday to make the pace notes, that is where they started, and it was noticeable for them that their notes were not nearly as consistent or accurate as they were making towards the end of their recce, which by then of course included the opening stages.

Kris Meeke in 8th place also leads the Super 1600 category fairly convincingly now. Garry Jennings has dropped way back after his stage 10 accident.  Ryan Champion is either running very late or has retired, his Puma reportedly smoking very badly at the end of Pike Hill. 24 year Meeke is adamant that is not pushing hard, but yes, he had been keeping an eye on young Finnish driver Teiskonen.  Teiskonen told us "I am taking nothing risk, safe driving, want to finish rally for experience, for the future."  The 22 year old from Lauka, just north of Jyvaskyla, went on to say that he would really like to come and do the British championship next year, but nothing is decided.

Neil Buckley continues to lead the gpN category with Neil Gatt 2nd in the Subaru, Rob Swann 3rd and then Roy White 4th.  Gatt is not registered for the Pirelli British championship, so Buckley, who is going for maximum points, has a fair buffer up his sleeve.  Gatt and Barry Groundwater stopped at the scene of Dougie Hall's accident yesterday, when a spectator took it upon himself to hold up the OK board, but unfortunately turned it the wrong way and showed the SOS side. Both drivers immediately took action, found it was not needed and were compensated for their stage time by the Stewards last night, when they were given a "notional time". 

Stuart Jones continues to lead the Peugeot 206 Super Cup after stage 12, his lead now just over 10s from Shaun Gallagher. Stuart reported one moment when they went straight on at a chicane, but Gallagher also lost a few seconds when his 206 clipped a rock.  Third is Chris Moore, 4th Philip Morrow. 5th Ling. 6th Gareth MacHale.  Chris Moore escaped a broken engine mounting and damaged drive shaft on that stage 12 and dropped very little time.

More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON       www.rallynews.net