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Rally New No.4 Charterhall Service .... Saturday 10.00am UNOFFICIAL FORMULA RALLY L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 4 - BLACKADDER 1st (F1) Martin Rowe/Chris Wood (Ford Puma) 35.54.8 2nd (F5) David Higgins/Mike Gibson (VW Polo) 36.05.5 3rd (F4) Mats Andersson/Claire Mole (Proton) 36.40.4 4th (F11) Simon Mauger/Keith Hounslow (Proton) 36.46.9 5th (F3) Patrick Magaud/Guylene Brun (Ford Puma) 36.50.8 6th (F7) Max McKillen/Nicky Beech (Saxo) 37.30.3 7th (F6) Martin Sansom/Phil Wells (Peugeot) 38.31.4 8th (F8) Liam Brady/Greg Shinnors (Proton) 42.07.0 9th Paul Wedgbury/Neil Dashfield (Saxo) 45.12.9 Our story on the last Rallynews that Justin Dale had stopped in Stage 4, Blackadder, has been confirmed. Justin's Peugeot broke a driveshaft after the big jump in the stage and he was forced to call it a day. This throws the Formula Rally series wide open, it is a big opportunity, for Martin Rowe to move into the lead with just one round, the Banbury event, still to come. It is early days to be thinking about championships for Martin of course, when he arrived into service his thoughts were all on the technicalities of today's stages. "It's really really slippy out there, very patchy, I'm not sure if I picked the most suitable Pirelli tyres for the job this morning, we had a soft compound front and an intermediate rear, and it was very marginal. The problem now is we don't know just how much the roads will have dried before the next loop". David Higgins in the Volkswagen Polo was fastest through stage 3, and he told us "Unbelievably slippy, you think you are going to slow, but obviously not. The car is bouncing around a little at the back, we will need to soften the proflex suspension just a little. Interestingly, Mats Andersson pushed his Proton to fastest through stage 4, Mats telling us "The car feels very hard at the rear and I let some air out of the rear tyres before stage 4, and it seemed to work, so maybe we need to soften the suspension a little, letting the air out was high-tech engineering!" The Swedish driver has been swopping seconds with fellow Proton man Simon Mauger, but his fastest time through stage 4 has opened up a small gap. Frenchman Patrick Magaud told us "The car, my Puma, feels good but sometimes it is very slippy, and other not too bad, but it is easy to lock the brakes". Max McKillen in the Saxo set some good times this morning despite fuel pump problems, the Dubliner saying "It happened at the end of the first stage this morning and then all through stage 2. It turned out to be a loose connection, but the low fuel pressure was confusing the engine's computer. I'm finding it very difficult to read the road. Paul Wedgbury in the other Saxo had a broken driveshaft this morning, a frustrated Paul telling us "We only have second hand shafts, and we don't know how old they are, but you can't blame the car for that, it's good". Ian Barrett has retired his car after smacking the front - he reached the end of the stage but could go no further. In the National part of the rally after stage 4, Peadar Hurson in the Celica has moved into a 12s lead ahead of overnight leader Tim McNulty in the Subaru, with John Cope 3rd, Steve Flack up to 4th, Phil Walker 5th and Barry Johnston, despite a misfire and his Impreza WRC jumping out of gear, 6th. More News Later .... Brian & Liz Patterson
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