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RALLY NEWS
NO.1 Dumfries..Saturday 09.00
Tapio Laukkanen, the winner here on the Scottish last year, vows
he's going flat out for a win again this time. The Finnish driver
has not so far notched up any points in defence of his Mobil
1 British Rally Champion's crown, so look out for fireworks through
the forests! For this third round his Golf has been through more
test and development exercises, and should be right on the pace.
But then that's the story with the other leading F2 teams, Vauxhall
and Hyundai, as they prepare for this Kuhmo Tyres backed Scottish.
Mark Higgins and Neil Wearden are more than pleased with their
Astras, Kytolehto is on something of a charge, Pirtinen again
backs up Laukkanen in the VW camp. The forecast is for damp tracks
over the weekend.At least there shouldn't be a dust problem!
Jonny Milner, just one of the top GpN drivers, reckons that wet
and slippy conditions will favour the four wheel drive GpN cars,
certainly on 40% of the weekend's twelve special stages."Sure,
damp roads will help the GpN cars big time. Especially in the
stages with tight corners. The problem now, in Championship terms,
is that Marko Ipatti has such a good lead. He always seems to
be there at the end to pick up the pieces" observed the
Yorkshireman at the Dumfries Ice Bowl scrutineering session.
By dint of a first and a third place,on the Pirelli and the Vauxhall
Wales, Ipatti leads the Mobil 1 title race with his GpN Lancer.
Running on an ever tightening budget, the Finnish driver has
had to install a new engine for this weekend, and also has a
different co-driver, Teppo Leino. Mike Brown, Neil Simpson, Dave
Wood, Gavin Cox, Stuart Egglestone are just some of the GpN drivers
in with a chance this weekend.
Mats Andersson, now sporting a very streamlined haircut, leads
the 1600 Super Cup runners, as well as lying a remarkable 2nd
overall in the Mobil 1 series with his Proton. The Peugeot team
drivers, Justin Dale and David Higgins, are now in a similar
position to the 'works' F2 drivers - under pressure to start
clawing back the Super 1600 Cup points deficit.
This Kumho Scottish is an event of many parts - on Saturday the
Mintex 2000 runs behind the International, with Steve Petch in
a strong position to extend his lead, especially with Glyn Jones
missing this one out. On Sunday its the Scottish Championship
runners turn, with Trevor Moore leading the points, but under
pressure from a number of drivers, including Brian Lyall and
Andrew Wood. Jon Burn misses this one, his wife Susan having
just given birth to a healthy 9lb 12 oz baby boy! The Ford Pumas,
Volkswagen Polos and Lex Army LandRovers each have their own
competition over the course of the weekend, so there is no shortage
of action. Non-starters from the advertised list include David
Wright and Alun Pearson.Andrea Hall comes in at 57 in a Puma,
Gethin Jones(Corsa) to 58. Richard Pashley is now co-driving
Natalie Barratt, Flavio Candoni sits in with Marco Veroni, both
all the way from Italy for the rally. More news from the end
of Ae..BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON |
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