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| Pirelli International Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.4 - After S4 - Saturday @ 10:00:17 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.4 End of SS4/Newcastleton/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4 NEWCASTLETON
1st (1) Keith Cronin/Barry McNulty (Impreza N) 31.54.1
2nd (2) Gwyndaf Evans/Chris Patterson (Lancer N) 33.07.7
3rd (3) Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts (Fiesta S2000) 33.24.4
4th (4) Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 33.48.8
5th (5) Dave Weston Jnr/Ieuan Thomas (Impreza N) 33.49.2
6th (8) Jonny Greer/Dai Roberts (Lancer N) 34.07.9
7th (11) Mark HIggins/NIcky Grist (Impreza N) 34.10.5
8th (10) Daniel Sigurdarson/Asta Siguroardottir (Lancer N) 34.11.1
9th (18) PG Andersson/Anders Fredriksson (Fiesta R2) 34.56.5
10th (24) Owen Murphy/James O’Brien (Lancer N) 35.12.3
Flat calm conditions and hazy but sunny skies could spell a dust problem for the drivers on this Pirelli International Rally later today. However, this opening Saturday stage, the 8.09 miles run through Newcastleton forest, was mostly clear of the cloying dust that hampered the top competitors last night. Craig Breen was fastest on 7.32.1. Gwyndaf Evans was 2nd fastest with 7.34.0. Keith Cronin was 3rd fastest on 7.34.5.
The twisty narrow section towards the end of the stage seemed ideal for Breen’s nimble little S2000 machine and the Waterford man reported all well at stage finish following some suspension adjustments last night. Gwyndaf Evans was also a lot happier than he was last night and rally leader Keith Cronin said. “We’ve got a good lead, we’re just trying to keep it altogether”. Mark Higgins was slowed last night with an errant turbo pipe but he was very much more on the pace this morning and was just 1s down on Cronin’s stage time. Dave Weston finished the stage with flat left rear tyre on his Impreza and was 9s slower than Alastair Fisher, the two swapping positions on the leaderboard.
The Icelandic driver Daniel Sigurdarson reported that his Lancer went into a bump dip very hard and it has pushed something up underneath the car. However Daniel did not seem too woried although his time was a few seconds off the pace. Adam Gould lost 7m last night when his jack collapsed twice when he was changing a puncture and although he is well down the classification he had a good time of 7.38.7 through stage 4.
In the battle for the R2 class PG Andersson still leads in his Fiesta and although the Swedish driver did not say much here at stage finish he spent a few seconds reversing back and forward at the stop line, possibly trying to clear the dust from the rear hubs. Andersson’s time was 8.03.2. Jarkko Nikara did an 8.00.4 to give him a total of 35.30.5 and Matti Rantanen recorded 8.00.8 to give him a total of 35.44.3. Richard Sykes/Simon Taylor led the Citroen C2R2 charge overnight from Robert Barrable/Damien Connolly and we are still waiting for their times from stage 4. The reason for David Bogie stopping last night was that his Lancer landed heavily after a jump and the sump guard pushed up and damaged the radiator.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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