RALLY NEWS NO.5     Carlisle Airport..Saturday 6.15

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 7 FALSTONE
1st (4) Jarmo Kytolehto/Arto Kapanen (Coupe F2)1.03.37.0
2nd (3) Neil Wearden/Trevor Agnew (Astra)1.03.46.2
3rd (11) Marko Ipatti/Kari Kajula (Lancer N)1.03.54.5
4th (15) Mike Brown/Aled Davies (Lancer N)1.04.15.0
5th (26) Dave Wood/Les Waterfall(Subaru N)1.04.45.5
6th (8) Mats Andersson/Claire Mole (Satria)1.05.04.2
7th (1) Tapio Laukkanen/Kaj Lindstrom (VW Golf)1.05.04.5
8th (22) Nik Elsmore/Jayson Brown (Lancer N)1.05.29.7
9th (5) Justin Dale/Andrew Bargery (Peugeot)1.06.00.0
10th (30)Guy Anderson/Dave Taylor(Lancer N)1.06.39.8

At last Tapio Laukkanen got a clearn run at a stage, free of the dust from Andrew Pinker's Coupe.  Through Falstone, stage 7, the British Champion showed all the opposition a clean pair of heels, his Volkswagen stopping the clock on 15m50s, Neil Wearden next fastest on 16.13.  Marko Ipatti did 16.16. Neil Simpson and Jarmo Kytolehto on 16.17.  Tapio said after the stage "The car's good, we have some little thing in the suspension but it can't be too bad when it goes so well over the bumps. We were one and a half minutes quicker than Pinker over that stage. We took another 1 minute road penalty to try to get a clean run".  Tapio, when asked about his position in the rally and the chances of winning, he shrugged his shoulders and said "We have to try".

Overnight Pirelli Rally leader Jarmo Kytolehto felt his car getting a little loose at the back end, but otherwise everything was OK.  Neil Wearden in the Astra reckons he picked slightly too hard a compound tyre, was over conservative, and also had a small intercom problem in the stage.  Neil Simpson at long last had a clean run and he was just a split second slower than Ipatti through stage 7, but Neil is 5 minutes away from the leaderboard after his earlier problems.  Keith Robathan had a spin in stage 7 but lost little time and Gavin Cox had a slight excursion into a ditch but again lost little time.

Unofficially, Jock Armstrong has moved into 11th place and Paul Griffiths 12th.  In the Super 1600 category Mats Andersson was again fastest by 19s from Justin Dale in the Peugeot with David Higgins a further 18 back, and still settling in to his Peugeot 106 Super GTi. No news yet of Ramanen in the Civic who was making a move earlier. No news either of young David Wright who was going extremely well in his Corsa Kit Car and was just outside the top 12 after SS6.

In the Challenge part of the rally, Stephen Finlay was well over a minute faster than 2nd placed Steve Petch through their first forest stage, Chirdonhead. Petch finished the stage with a punctured wheel but is still fastest of the Mintex registered drivers. Lyall 3rd Glyn Jones 4th, Robert Woodside 5th despite severely damaging a strut on a huge rock many miles from the finish of the stage, and Jim Carty was 6th.  In the Peugeot Super 106 Cup - latest news we have is after stage 6 - Mike Faulkner led by just over 10s from Ryan Champion, Sansom 3rd, Wedgbury 4th and Furber 5th. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON