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| Rally Isle of Man |
| RALLY NEWS No.10 - After SS19 - Saturday @ 15:01:36 |
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MANX TAILS/RALLYNEWS NO.10 Grandstand/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 19 Ballanank
1st (2) Keith Cronin/Barry McNulty (Impreza N) 1.59.45.0
2nd (3) Gwyndaf Evans/Gareth Roberts (Lancer N) 2.01.43.8
3rd (10) Jason Pritchard/Robbie Durant (Impreza N) 2.04.11.2
4th (6) Jonny Greer/Gordon Noble (Lancer N) 2.05.28.4
5th (19) Jarkko Nikara/Petri Nikara (Twingo) 2.09.10.4
6th (9) Euan Thorburn/Paul Beaton (Lancer N) 2.09.39.2
7th (7) Dave Weston Jnr/Ieuan Thomas (Impreza N) 2.09.57.7
8th (18) Matti Rantanen/Mikko Lukka (Twingo) 2.10.00.2
9th (17) Elfyn Evans/Andrew Edwards (Fiesta) 2.10.06.1
10th (20) Robert Barrable/Damien Connolly (Citroen) 2.10.08.6
When Keith Cronin arrived into service after stage 19 he was more than happy to sit down and get a cup of tea and told us. “It is so tricky out there. So much water, a lottery. Stage 19 wasn’t too bad but stage 18 we were aquaplaning from one corner to the next”. When it was pointed out to Keith that he had an almost 2m lead over Gwyndaf Evans with just 2 stages to go and surely his tactics now must be to drive very conservatively, he said. “Easier said than done, the car can just take a mind of its own in these conditions”.
Gwyndaf Evans more or less echoed Cronin’s words as regards how difficult it was when he said. “It was like a monsoon out there, like driving down a river. I should have been off the road many times. Gareth said at the end of one of the stages that he is so glad to be out of there and that just about sums it up. Also we only had intermediate tyres on the front without any cuts.” Gwyndaf went on to say that he had spun the car into a farmyard at one point, between 2 pillars. That was on the link section up past the farm near Glenvine where Steven Quinne crashed a few minutes later. When we mentioned to Nigel Cannell that he was now the highest placed Manx driver he said. “I’d rather not be. I feel so sorry for Steven. He was going well and the car is badly damaged”.
In the race for 3rd place Jason Pritchard has moved clear of Jonny Greer. Jonny told us that he broke a damper on his Lancer last night and he now has 2 Proflex suspension struts on the front and 2 Ohlins on the back and the two together don’t seem to have a great relationship. He said he had a couple of major scares with 5th gear slides and decided to back off. Jason Pritchard on the other hand is really keeping a gteat pace although his Impreza did overshoot one tightened junction in stage 19. Jarkko Nikara still has a solid lead in class R2 but behind his Twingo there is just a handful of seconds separating Rantanen, Elfyn Evans and Robert Barrable for 2nd in the class. Barrable set a superb time over stage 19 to close the gap right up and of course that also extends his lead in the Citroen Racing Trophy. Donegal man Joe McGonigle has crashed his C2R2 Max into a field and Richard Sykes has also gone off the road in his Citroen. On our last RallyNews were reported that Daniel Sigurdarson had retired his Lancer, possibly off the road. It would appear the car stopped with an electrical problem.
After SS18 Jonathan Gale in his Tiger led Category 1 in the Historics from Dessie Nutt in his Porsche. David Stokes led Cat. 2 from the similar Escort of Rupert Lomax. Ryan Barrett led Cat. 3 from Darren Moon, both in Mk2 Escorts. On the IoM Challenge Rally Richard Archer led from Chris Peart after SS18 and Jonathan Cunningham in his Fiesta was 3rd.
WRC Bulgaria Rally: Petter Solberg/Chris Patterson were fastest again, on stage 9. Loeb 2nd fastest Sordo 3rd. Loeb still leads rally overall by 36s from Sordo with Petter 3rd a further 10s back.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTESON www.rallynews.net
(with thanks to Ciara)
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