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| Pirelli International Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.8 - After SS12 - Saturday @ 20:31:54 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.8 Carlisle Racecourse Service/Saturday 8.30pm
LATEST: Keith Cronin was fastest than Mark Higgins on the final stage by 4s to win the rally by 2s. Alastair Fisher closed to within 1.8s of David Bogie who was 3rd, Alastair 4th.
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 11 GLEN DHU
1st (3) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Impreza N) 1.01.01.1
2nd (2) Keith Cronin/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 1.01.03.5
3rd (7) David Bogie/Kevin Rae (Lancer N) 1.02.00.2
4th (14) Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 1.02.19.6
5th (15) Jonny Greer/Anthony O'Conaill (Lancer N) 1.02.20.7
6th (8) Dave Weston/Dave Robson (Impreza N) 1.02.38.7
7th (12) Danny Sigurdarson/Andy Bull (Lancer N) 1.04.48.5
8th (25) Chris Firth/Martin Taylor (Impreza N) 1.06.09.3
9th (26) Max Utting/Katie Blake (Impreza N) 1.06.24.5
10th (16) Rob Swann/Darren Garrod (Impreza N) 1.07.04.7
We are certainly on for a grandstand finish to this Pirelli International Rally with Keith Cronin fastest through this penultimate stage 7.8s up on Mark Higgins. This leaves the gap at 2.4s going into the final stage, the 8.7 mile Valley test. Reports suggest the stage is quite cut from earlier traffic and this could go either way. Alastair Fisher was over a second faster than Jonny Greer so Alastair moves into 4th and Greer 5th. In the race for best 2 wheel drive Craig Breen was quite a bit faster than Marty McCormack, 20s in fact, so Craig has a good buffer and is 11th o/a, leads Cl.R3 from the similar Fiesta of Kyle Orr. Marty McCormack is 12th o/a and leads Class R2 as well as the Citroen Racing Trophy. The rally is now running approximately 90 minutes late.
Guy Wilks came into the service park a little while ago to collect his recce car and the British Rally Champion is still very upset about the fire with his Proton and said he had no idea how it started and when it did, it was just a matter of getting out of the car as fast as possible. He continued then. “I’d like to thank everyone who gave us their extinguishers. There was a forest at stake as well as the car. The whole thing is such a shame. If I had got the result it would have been the start of something big.”
The Pirelli Tour of Cumbria Rally finished after stage 10 and Marcus Dodd/Andrew Bargery in their Accent won by 4.6s from Paul Bird/Ian Windress (Focus WRC). Simon Hughes was 4th o/a to win the Group N in their Lancer and take maximum points in the Evo Challenge with Danny Barry/Martin Brady next up in their Lancer and then Nik Elsmore/Craig Drew (6th o/a 3rd GpN and 3rd Evo Challenge)> Steve Perez/Paul Spooner were 3rd o/a in their Focus WRC. Steve Bannister/Louise Sutherland were best 2 wheel drive and 8th o/a in their Escort. Marcus Dodd had a real battle today with the transmission of his Hyundai and after the put the car on to the trailer and was clambering out through the bars we overheard mutter. “Poor little girl, she’s bleeding”. This was as he looked as various bits of fluid dripping out of the engine and box. Marcus told us then. “The boys did a brilliant job changing the gearbox in 20 minutes but they didn’t manage to sort the hydraulics out as well. We can cope without the hydraulics but not with a knackered gearbox”.
Paul Bird told us. “I’m happy with the way we went we were fastest on every stage apart from the one I messed up at the chicane. It’s my birthday today (he is 42) and I’m very happy with the way it went. I had so much confidence in the notes, they were perfect. My only worry now is that my Mum is in hospital here in Carlisle. I am a bit worried about her so I’m heading down there now”. Group N winner Simon Hughes had a fairly major worry at the last service when the bottom of his Lancer’s gearbox needed to be patched up when all the oil leaked out because of some damage and 5th gear was a bit precarious. Simon said after the finish. “We managed to keep it all together. We had a steady enough run and maybe losing the stage where Wilks had his fire helped us. We didn’t hang about on the long stages but I was surprised to take so much time from Danny”. As for Danny he said. “Well I got it here but Simon took big chunks of time out of us and I thought we weren’t hanging about”. Danny still leads the Evo Challenge having won 2 rounds as against Simon Hughes’ one. The next round is the Manx National. Danny Barry still leads the MSA Gravel C/ship as well on 59pts with Simon Hughes on 57 and Marcus Dodd on 51.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net Our thanks to all who helped and supported the Rally News service. Thanks also to Andrew Kellitt for all his help.
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