RALLY NEWS NO.3      Carlisle Airport service..Sat.12.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 3 - KERSHOPE
1st (2) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Vauxhall Astra)23.44.1
2nd (4) Jarmo Kytolehto/Arto Kapanen (Coupe F2) 23.47.7
3rd (22) Nik Elsmore/Jayson Brown (Lancer N) 23.49.0
4th (15) Mike Brown/Aled Davies (Lancer N) 23.51.6
5th (9) Jani Pirtinen/Tomi Tuominen (VW Golf)23.58.7
6th (3) Neil Wearden/Trevor Agnew (Vauxhall Astra)24.07.6

The Kershope stage turned out to be quite rocky, abrasive and dusty, causing most of the top drivers all sorts of puncture dramas.  Indeed, so abrasive was the surface that many of the cars had their tyres worn right down almost to the canvas.  First on the road, Mark Higgins, survived without punctures, but his front tyres got so worn that they lost their grip and his Astra was in the ditch, and had to be reversed out just before the finish.  Neil Wearden had 2 punctures, but finished the stage without stopping to change a wheel and only lost approximately a minute.  Andrew Pinker stopped and changed a front right puncture 8 miles from the finish, losing a lot of time, and then when he restarted it was right in front of a later car, causing a dust problem. 

Tapio Laukkanen had a rear puncture not long after the start of the 17.9 mile stage and then a front puncture a few miles from the finish.  Jarmo Kytolehto had a clean run, as did Pirttinen in the second Volkswagen.  Marko Ipatti got caught in dust from cars in front for almost half the stage, and felt that he was going so slowly that it was "like only Sunday driving" to use the Finn's own words.  Interestingly, his co-driver Kari Kajula, always a very precise man, feels that his finish time was 1 minute too much.  Also in a query over times is Mats Andersson in the Proton who had a very good run, despite catching Kytolehto's dust towards the end.  Justin Dale had a fairly clear run although he was behind Jonny Milner for many miles, Jonny very disappointed at the stage finish, his car's master switch playing up and costing a huge amount of time. Jonny was also unfortunate enough to hit a small deer at one point and was worried about his Toyota's radiator for the rest of the stage.

David Higgins' Peugeot was full of dust at stage finish, he couldn't see where he was going there was so much dust on the inside of the screen, and eventually he went off the road for several minutes. Co driver Shaun O'Gorman was ill at stage finish, he had breathed in so much dust. Neil Simpson lost 5 minutes with a puncture. Gavin Cox stopped and changed a puncture. Stuart & Steve Egglestone are reportedly off the road and have not appeared here at service. Niall McShea hasn't appeared at service. There was an engine problem earlier.  Young Ian Barrett in the Delphi backed Corsa has stopped at junction 26 in Kershope, the oil pressure has dropped through the floor. Charlie Jukes was off twice in Kershope but didn't lose too much time. Jock Armstrong in the ex works Golf was up to 9th after stage 2 and set a respectable time in 3 despite intercom problems. More later.BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON