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| RBS Int Manx National Rally 2008 |
| RALLY NEWS No.7 - After SS14 Colden Final - Thursday @ 15:23:18 |
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WEE MANX TALES NO.7 Grandstand/Saturday 4.15
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 14 Colden
1st (3) Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 1.41.40.0
2nd (2) Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield (Impreza WRC) 1.42.30.9
3rd (4) Jon Ingram/Ian Allsop (Impreza WRC) 1.44.06.3
4th (11) David Kynaston/Andy Russell (Audi A3) 1.44.12.9
5th (45) Keith Cronin/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 1.45.11.6
6th (17) Neil McCance/Graham Hopewell (Lancer N) 1.45.58.9
7th (7) Stephen Moore/Tony McHugh (Focus WRC) 1.46.24.1
8th (23) Danny Barry/Mark Bowens (Lancer N) 1.47.36.7
9th (14) John Price/Caroline Price (Metro 6R4) 1.47.39.3
11th (6) Marcus Dodd/Andrew Bargery (Accent WRC) 1.47.46.0
For Melvyn Evans and his co driver Sean Mullally winning this RBS International sponsored Manx Rally was a real red letter day. A fabulous result for the Welshman and his Irish co driver. When Melvyn, who won the rally in 2002, arrived in here to the Grandstand he said. “This was probably a better result this time as Kenny McKinstry made such a good race of it. It has been a long tough rally but a lovely rally to win. The stages are technical tough and fast.” When we asked Melvyn what age he was, he laughed “I feel like 75 after that, but I am younger than Kenny McKinstry!” Co driver Sean Mullally said. “Very tough, very exciting, we were in places that astronauts wouldn’t be in; we were taking the jumps so hard”.
Roger Duckworth and his co driver Mark Broomfield have once again finished 2nd here, that is about their 4th 2nd place on this Manx, but for a crew that hasn’t rallied for 7 months to finish in 2nd place on such a competitive rally was quite an achievement. Their Subaru is not one of the newer ones on the rally and there wasn’t a scratch on it at the end. Jon Ingram and his co driver Ian Allsop came into 3rd place at the end and Jon said. “That’s an absolute result for us. We wanted to get ANCRO points; we weren’t pushing, just sensible”.
Keith Cronin and his co driver Greg Shinnors had a very dramatic finish to the rally to win group N. Keith also scores maximum points in the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge. Following a quiet enough start to the rally and from a start number of 45 Keith piled on the pressure over the 14 stages. He really got the handling of his Lancer sorted out towards the end and it really showed. On any of the stages that were repeated Keith was considerably faster than his first time through. He had one major hiccup and that was a puncture on the final stage. Keith said he didn’t feel that he clipped anything but the one of the front tyres went down anyway, but he only lost about 20-25s.
There were major dramas surrounding Fermanagh man Richard Cathcart. He appeared to have GpN and a maximum haul of Evo points in the bag but it all went wrong 2 stages from the end when he clipped a wheel and did some suspension damage. Richard lost well over a minute in the drama and did well to get his Lancer through the final stage, indeed 3rd fastest overall. Unfortunately, it would appear that Richard has gone over maximum lateness and will not be classified as a finisher. This is provisional. It was still a brilliant performance from Richard and his co driver Martin Brady. Neil McCance set a fastest GpN time through stage 12 and he finished 2nd GpN. Danny Barry survived a very difficult time throughout the rally. He overcame many problems and finished 3rd GpN and provisionally holds on to his lead in the Evo Challenge./
David Kynaston in his Audi put in a very strong performance throughout to finish best of the MSA Asphalt contenders. David was baulked by Richard Cathcart on the penultimate stage otherwise he may well have been on the podium. Stephen Moore turned in a string of 4th and 5th fastest times through the 2nd half of the rally to catapult his Focus WRC into 7th o/a. He finished with a very sore head and what would almost to be dehydration, but at least he was able to get on the pace. John Price nibbled his way into the top 6 times through the afternoon stages, his Metro 6R4 never missed a beat and John will score a good bagful of MSA Asphalt points. Marcus Dodd had battled his way into a likely podium position with a couple of stages to go but then put his Accent off the road and dropped to 10th o/a at the finish. Jonny Greer also had an off road excursion towards the end and he finished 11th. Rob Watson was 13th in his Nova, just ahead of Steve Perez who improved to 14th at the finish.
Finally for now many thanks to John and Gill Skinner and all who supported the Rally News service. An extra special word of thanks and congratulations are due to John Skinner who does such a great job as Clerk of the Course.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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