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| Rally Isle of Man |
| RALLY NEWS No.4 - After SS6 - Friday @ 15:53:50 |
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MANX TAILS/RALLY NEWS NO.4 Grandstand/Friday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 Ballanank
1st (2) Keith Cronin/Barry McNulty (Impreza N) 39.23.9
2nd (11) Adam Gould/Craig Drew (Impreza N) 40.06.0
3rd (6) Jonny Greer/Gordon Noble (Lancer N) 40.39.6
4th (10) Jason Pritchard/Robbie Durant (Impreza N) 40.49.1
5th (14) Nigel & Michaela Cannell (Lancer N) 41.02.4
6th (8) Steven Quine/Richard Skinner (Lancer N) 41.17.5
7th (3) Gwyndaf Evans/Gareth Roberts (Lancer N) 41.28.1
8th (9) Euan Thorburn/Paul Beaton (Lancer N) 41.45.2
9th (9) Robert Barrable/Damien Connolly (Citroen) 41.52.4
10th (21) Mark Donnelly/Aidan Friel (Citroen) 41.52.5
Stages 3, 4 and 5 around South Barrule and the Plantation provided a huge battle between Keith Cronin and Gwyndaf Evans for the lead of this Rally Isle of Man. Cronin left service almost 15s in arrears of Evans and he was fastest through stage 4 by just over 3s and then fastest through stage 5 by 7s. Gwyndaf had a real go through stage 6 where Cronin had a small problem with his windscreen misting up. Keith thought maybe his good work would come to nothing but unbeknown to him Gwyndaf had a big moment towards the end of the stage and dropped several minutes. While this was happening Alastair Fisher had an accident a few miles into that long 6th stage and he is now out of the rally. Alastair’s damaged Lancer blocked the stage so the following drivers were mostly re-routed. Some, however, got stuck in the stage and there will now be a small delay while the organisers gather all the cars together in some sort of order.
Keith Cronin said when he got here to service. “It started to drizzle in the stage and we touched a bank at one point in a 5th gear combination of 3 corners. The misted up screen happened after that”. Keith’s co driver Barry McNulty commented. “We were on some mission!” Gwyndaf told us. “Another compression jump knocked the tracking out again and the car was over-steering on left hand corners. We were on a good pace but got caught out half a mile from the end. Ultimately you can argue that I should have slowed down but I am here to race”. When we left Gwyndaf at the In Control to service he was crouching down under the back of his now rather battered Evo 10 and phoning the JRM engineers in service a couple of hundred yards away. We heard him say. “And the exhaust is bent to buggery and it looks like there is power steering fluid dripping!”
The little information we have on Alastair Fisher’s accident is that is happened about 3 miles into the stage. Alastair and co driver Rory Kennedy are both OK. The car has a lot of suspension damage but the roof is still relatively straight. All this drama leaves British Championship leader Jonny Greer in a strong position, 3rd o/a. Adam Gould is having a great run in his older model Impreza N11 and is a very strong 2nd o/a. Adam has the name “Samantha” on the rear pillar of his car which refers to a woman from the US whom Adam has never met. She reportedly emailed him and arranged to pay for 2 Pirelli tyres for the rally car as her personal sponsorship! Just .1 of a second separates the top two C2R2 Max contestants, Robert Barrable and Mark Donnelly. Elfyn Evans in his Fiesta is only .7 of a second behind Donnelly in the battle for the R2 class honours.
WRC RALLY BULGARIA: Sebastien Loeb still leads by 28s from Sordo with Petter Solberg a further 9s in arrears to make it a Citroen top 3. Mikko Hirvonen is 4th. Raikkonen has crashed out of the top 6 and may have blocked the stage.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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