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RALLY NEWS NO.2 End of Gartheiniog..Sat.09.00 UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 1 1st (1) Tapio Laukkanen/Kaj Lindstrom (VW Golf) 13.39.6 2nd (2) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (V/hall Astra)13.48.9 3rd (3) Neil Wearden/Trevor Agnew (Vauxhall) 13.55.0 4th (59) Mark Perrott/Garry Mansell (Lancer) 14.02.0 5th (11) Marko Ipatti/Kari Kajula (Lancer) 14.11.5 6th (56) Stuart & Steve Egglestone (Lancer) 14.20.7 7th (4) Jarmo Kytolehto/Arto Kapanen (CoupeF2) 14.21.9 Early dramas on this dry, but cold, first stage of this Vauxhall Rally of Wales include David Higgins tumbling his little Peugeot 106 Super Gti and Jonny Milner's Toyota breaking down in the stage. Tapio Laukkanen was fastest and said "It was quite slippy, maybe we had slightly the wrong tyre choice, but the car is working well". Mark Higgins in the Vauxhall commented "Understeer on the left handers, maybe a slightly soft tyre, otherwise OK". Neil Wearden in the 2nd Vauxhall said "We tried to steer clear of trouble, I drove well within myself, thought the surface was very polished on top and quite slippy". Other stories - Kytolehto slowed slightly towards stage finish reckoning there was something overheating underneath the car, possibly only heat from the exhaust. Justin Dale finished the stage with a swellen left hand, Justin found that he was beating the power steering and having to wrestle the car a bit. Marko Ipatti told us "We had too hard brake pads and lost a few seconds, also when we tried to get past David Higgins' car - it was a flat out place". Other reports on the Higgins accident suggest the beautiful little Peugeot may have rolled several times and has ended up sideways on the road, fortunately with no reported injuries to the crew. Mats Andersson in the Proton felt his new car was good, there are lots of development bits on the car of course, but the Swede thought as well that the stage was very fast for the car. Andrew Pinker in the second Coupe F2 took it steady, the Australian joking "Still figuring out how to drive the bloody thing". Juuso Pykalisto in the Ford Puma told us "I am still little bit learning the car, I start slowly and hopefully speed up, the new 6 speed Hewland sequential box is working well". Niall McShea finished the stage beaming from ear to ear and saying "Really enjoyed that, brilliant". Mike Brown finished the stage with a punctured tyre but still set a good time. Neil Simpson reportedly stopped in stage with blown turbo. Dave Wood lost few seconds behind Simpson as did Kressner. Milner has emerged from stage after losing 10 mins. Some more times - Justin Dale 14.28.7: Mats Andersson 15.01.5: Pykalisto 14.48.4: McShea 14.49.6: Brown 14.28.6: Cox 14.27.9: Lawn 15.47.8: Wood 15.12.2: Kressner 14.45.9: Richard Davies 15.13.0: Elsmore 14.46.3: Reynolds 14.50.4: Robathan 14.46.2: Johansson 14.41.2: More news to follow..BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
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