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| Manx International Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.5 - After SS8 - Friday @ 18:20:01 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.5 Grandstand/Douglas/Friday 6.25
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 8 Dogmills
1st (1) Mark HIggins/Bryan Thomas (Impreza N) 1.09.13.0
2nd (2) Keith Cronin/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 1.10.04.3
3rd (3) Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 1.12.21.1
4th (4) Adam Gould/Sebastian Marshal (Impreza N) 1.12.35.9
5th (11) Steven Quine/Paul McCann (Lancer) 1.13.34.3
6th (7) Euan Thorburn/Campbell Roy (Impreza N) 1.14.30.4
7th (8) Dave Weston Jnr/Aled Davies (Impreza N) 1.14.59.5
8th (15) Tom Walster/Tim Sturla (Clio) 1.15.22.6
9th (16) Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts (Fiesta) 1.15.47.1
10th (25) Marty McCormack/Phil Clarke (C2R2 Max) 1.15.55.0
Just 6 cars got through stage 8 as Jonny Greer unfortunately crashed his Lancer and blocked the road. Jonny and his co driver Kirsty Riddick are reportedly shaken but unhurt. Euan Thorburn and co driver Campbell Roy were first on the scene and made sure that they were OK before they went on to inform the radio point. Campbell said the accident happened just after junction 3 at a fairly high speed place with a bump into a left 7 and the car went up a bank and rolled. Keith Cronin was fastest through the stage, by just over 3s from Mark Higgins. Mark had some sort of small problem with his notes but otherwise reported all well and the rear brake locking difficulty from early has been resolved. It transpired that the front brakes were glazed. Keith Cronin appears to have lost a little bit of his momentum following his delays with the broken differential. Keith said. “We’re still pushing on but not as hard as previously. We have lost too much time really but we did get a good run on that last stage”. Alastair Fisher is maintaining his 3rd place with his consistent times. Adam Gould in 4th feels that his Impreza is struggling a wee bit for top speed in the very fast sections but the handling of the car is well sorted following this morning’s accident.
Although he is well down the classification David Bogie is still running with the top cars and said that he is now treating the rally as a 2 day test session. He has adjusted the rebound in the suspension and is going to try alternative differential map settings and the Evo X is getting better all the time. Joe McGonigle in the Honda Civic lost time this morning when he dipped a wheel into a ditch and the brake disc shattered so he had to drive several stages with no brakes. In the Challenge Rally Matt Edwards in his Fiesta led after stage 5 from Ross Forde with Neil Matthews 3rd. Craig Breen, running in the main international rally, still heads the points scoring in the Fiestas. Nigel Cannell has unfortunately retired his Lancer after the transmission failed in stage 6. Marty McCormack has got ahead of Jason Pritchard in the race for Citroen Racing Trophy points. Marty now leads class R2 and 11th o/a. We mentioned earlier that Marty was having some trouble with the brakes in his car. It would appear that some new pads that were fitted were not fully bedded in and everything is now working well.
In the Historic Rally Dessie Nutt in his Porsche leads the pre ’67 section from Gary Eddington in his Imp. In the Post Historics David Stokes leads in his Escort from Steve Smith and Derek Boyd 3rd, both in Porsches. David Stokes has an oil light flashing which is a bit worrying. Steve Smith has thumped the front of his Porsche and said the car is soft through the high speed corners.
Derek Boyd’s Porsche ran out of petrol on the way to the re-fuelling unit and then sustained a puncture in stage 8. He struggled to change the wheel after the stage and his co driving daughter Roisin said. “The jack is as old as my father! It wouldn’t work”. Following drivers, especially Drew Wylie stopped to help the stricken Porsche. In the Classic Rally Gwyndaf Evans in his Escort led from Phil Collins with Mark Solloway 3rd. Collins thought the Ascona’s head gasket was gone but it turned out to be the heater matrix leaking. His ever resourceful co driver Dairmuid Falvey had a tin of Rain-X in his bag along with the Nestles chocolate and was able to clear the misted screen.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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