WEE MANX TALES NO.7      Grandstand..Saturday 3.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 12
1st (1) Ken McKinstry/Noel Orr (Impreza) 1.23.15
2nd (2) Marcus Dodd/John Bennie (Impreza)1.24.12
3rd (4) Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield (Impreza)1.24.31
4th (8) Melvyn Evans/Martin Henry (Escort WRC) 1.25.57
    (3) John & Caroline Price (Metro 6R4) 1.25.57
6th (114) Tony Davies/Brian Hardie (Metro 6R4) 1.26.41
7th (10) David Mann/Alun Cook (Lancer N)  1.27.07
8th (12) Glenn Leece/John Tarrant (Metro 6R4) 1.27.21
9th (28) Rob Watson/Phil Pugh (Escort F2) 1.27.38
10th (23) Phil Collins/Sue Mee (Escort) 1.27.39

Kenny McKinstry had a few very dramatic moments after he left lunchtime service.  Stage 10 "The Nab", was just a short distance up the road, and the Banbridge lawnmower/rally car preparation expert got over enthusiastic on cold tyres, and his Impreza went into a lurid spin.  Later on in the stage he had another very big moment, trying an over-ambitious manoeuvre, and Kenny was lucky to make 9th fastest time.  Marcus Dodd was fastest from Roger Duckworth.  Kenny made up for his indiscretion by being quickest on stage 11 and 12, to leave the gap between himself and Dodd at 57 seconds, with just 3 stages remaining.  Marcus is growing in confidence with every stage now, fitted harder tyres for these stages just past, and is really getting to grips with the world rally Subaru.  Roger Duckworth is making no big impression on Dodd in front, and is looking very much as if he will have to settle for 3rd place. Roger was fastest through stage 7 - we said earlier that he was equal 2nd fastest - but we had a wrong time.

Steve Petch has retired his Escort WRC at St.Johns, apparently there was a power steering problem.  We have unconfirmed reports that Richie Holfeld is in trouble on the road section in here to Douglas. In the Historic section of the rally, Adrian Kermode has retired his Mini Cooper and David Mylchreest has retired his MGB with gearbox trouble. 

Melvyn Evans is now equal 4th with John Price, Melvyn saying "We just can't go any harder".  His Escort WRC still has no top gear.  John Price commented "Too little, too late".  Jon Mercer has some clutch/gearbox trouble in his Metro. John is lying 11th overall.  Phil Collins in 10th place has a severe vibration in his Mk2 Escort.  Tony Davies has all sorts of electrical flashes and flickers in the guages and wiring around the dah, which don't exactly inspire confidence!  David Mann, the gpN leader, tells us "It's a job for us to know how hard to go now, although we do enjoy those stages in the south of the island".  Vince Wetton now has power steering problems, his mechanics took a headlamp out to try to get more cooling air into the engine bay. The anti lag system is also cutting out as temperatures rise.  Robert Watson, despite having no reverse gear in his F2 RS2000 still brilliantly leads Formula 2 with Guy Woodcock, who also has some gear change troubles, 2nd.  We mentioned earlier that Shaun Fox continued tolead his class, no sooner said, than Shaun reversed his Nova into a bank at high speed, blocking the exhaust and losing 3  minutes..more later..BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON