|
|
| |
| Rally Isle of Man |
| RALLY NEWS No.5 - After SS7 - Friday @ 17:50:51 |
| |
|
MANX TAILS/RALLYNEWS NO.5 Grandstand/Friday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 7 Staarvey
1st (2) Keith Cronin/Barry McNulty (Impreza N) 45.57.4
2nd (11) Adam Gould/Craig Drew (Impreza N) 46.38.9
3rd (10) Jason Pritchard/Robbie Durant (Impreza N) 47.29.8
4th (6) Jonny Greer/Gordon Noble (Lancer N) 47.36.3
5th (3) Gwyndaf Evans/Gareth Roberts (Lancer N) 48.01.4
6th (14) Nigel & Michaela Cannell (Lancer N) 48.04.6
7th (8) Steven Quine/Richard Skinner (Lancer N) 48.19.0
8th (20) Robert Barrable/Damien Connolly (Citroen) 49.00.4
9th (19) Jarkko Nikara/Petri Nikara (Twingo) 49.00.9
10th (21) Mark Donnelly/Aidan Friel (Citroen) 49.03.6
Adam Gould and his co driver Craig Drew in their Impreza N11 were fastest through stage 7, Staarvey. Gwyndaf Evans and Keith Cronin were only a split second in arrears. Mist and light rain have again shrouded the Island making the going difficult for the top drivers. Nigel Cannell and his co-driving wife Michaela are the highest placed Manx crew, and following a hesitant start they have settled down well. They lead another local driver Steven Quine by 14s.
Robert Barrable continues to lead the Citroen Racing Trophy contenders and lead class R2 in his C2 R2 Max. Jarkko Nikara in the Twingo had edged ahead of Mark Donnelly for 2nd in that class with Matti Rantanen 4th and Elfyn Evans in the Fiesta 5th. Elfyn changed from the 2 litre Fiesta to the new model 1.6 for this rally and is still getting used to the car. He told us. “It does feel different. The engine is very revvy and the power comes in only at peak revs”.
One of the Citroen contenders, Richard Sykes, has his fingers crossed that his car keeps going. The buckle from his HANS device made contact with the live terminals in the fuse box inside the car and the whole lot went on fire. The wiring loom and so forth are all burned and most things including the wipers are only working intermittently. The driver, Richard, grabbed co-driver Simon Taylor’s rally jacket to put out the blaze, and now where it should say Citroen across the back, it just says “Cit” as there is a bloody great big hole in Simon’s coat!
Max Utting spun his Impreza in stage 5 and squashed the exhaust flat so he was quite relieved that stage 6 was cancelled for the later runners. Mark Donnelly lost a couple of seconds in stage 7 to slip from 2nd to 3rd in the class and reported a spin earlier on shiny tar in stage 4.
In the Historic Rally David Stokes leads the Classic category in his Escort and indeed overall. Darren Moon is 2nd in the time sheets and Ryan Barrett in his Escort 3rd. Ryan had a small problem with the Escort wiper motor but otherwise has had a clean run. Connor Corkill lost a lot of time when the gear stick snapped off in his Escort in the 2nd stage and he had to drive most of the long stage with the car stuck in 2nd gear. Adrian Kermode leads the D4 category in his Porsche despite an oil pipe breaking and had to be cobbled together in a big rush. Bruce Craig/John Tarrant have retired their Mini Cooper when the clutch gave up the ghost at the end of stage 4. Earlier a drive shaft had popped out twice in stage 2.
Overall Historic leader David Stokes reported a very big moment in stage 5 on a square right at a gate where quite a few other cars had gone into the field. Dessie Nutt led the Pre 66 Historic section in his Porsche despite some front suspension issues that caused his 911 to jump about all over the road on the bumps. Jonathan Gale took the lead from Nutt for a couple of stages but Dessie has managed to get ahead again.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
(with thanks to Chris Boyde and Ciara)
|
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
|
