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Rally News No.7 Charterhall Service - Saturday 4.00pm UNOFFICIAL FORMULA RALLY L/BOARD AFTER SS13 - LAST STAGE 1st (F1) Martin Rowe/Chris Wood (Ford Puma) 1.39.59.4 2nd (F5) David Higgins/Mike Gibson (VW Polo) 1.40.30.2 3rd (F3) Patrick Magaud/Guylene Brun (Ford) 1.41.50.6 4th (F11) Simon Mauger/Keith Hounslow (Proton) 1.44.08.4 5th (F7) Max McKillen/Nicky Beech (Saxo) 1.44.15.0 6th (F4) Mats Andersson/Claire Mole (Proton) 1.45.29.3 7th (F9) Paul Wedgbury/Neil Dashfield (Saxo) 1.54.02.6 For Martin Rowe this was a decisive and pleasing win on the Jim Clark Memorial Rally, the Ford Puma driver taking the lead from David Higgins with 2 stages to go, and did not make any mistakes. Martin now moves into the lead of the Formula Rally drivers points table, and Ford would seem unofficially to have won the manufacturers category, although this has to be confirmed. For Peugeot a day that promised so much turned out to be unsuccessful, both Peugeots retiring with broken driveshafts at the same jump bridge. Martin Rowe commented at the finish "We changed the tyres for the final loop, replaced a cracked brake disc and fitted a new set of pads and it transformed the car. There were places on the rally this morning where I wasn't happy, in 5th gear the car darting from bank to bank, but overall I really enjoyed the event - a proper rally - just a pity I have to fight for the championship next weekend on artificial stages". David Higgins was naturally slightly disappointed to have lost the lead so close to the end, but he told us, "I gave it my best shot, on a 4th gear left hander which tightened into a square right, the car just slid away from me and spun, and I had to reverse to get back on course, dropping too much time. It was fantastic though to be in with a chance after a fairly miserable start, we had a lot to make up and nearly did it". Patrick Magaud's 3rd place makes it a 1-2-3 for Pirelli tyres, Frenchman Patrick commenting "Not so bad, I got the good feeling after a while, the set up of the Puma was more comfortable for me". Simon Mauger piled on the pressure towards the end to move ahead of Max McKillen, while Mats Andersson was disappointed to drop to 6th, his Proton suffering a recurrence of it's earlier fuel pressure problems. Last minute retirement in this Formula Rally section of the Jim Clark was Liam Brady whose Proton went out with a broken driveshaft. In the National section of the event, Peadar Hurson scored a fine victory, the Ulsterman commenting "It was good to get the result, one of my most important, the car ran very well and I thought it was a very good event". Steve Fleck came into 2nd and Barry Johnston 3rd, John Cope 4th. Tim McNulty was 5th following his puncture, David Brown 6th, Phil Walker 7th, Jock Threadgall 8th, Steven Clark 9th and Peter Heatherington 10th. In the Volkswagen Polo Challenge with just a few stages to go David Bateson continued to lead, Tom Hynd had moved into 2nd, Clive Wheeler 3rd, George Philipedes had moved up to 3rd but retired. News of further retirements include - Simon Hughes going out with a broken driveshaft in stage 10 when lying 13th in his Peugeot Super 106 Cup car, he had been battling with Rob Russell. That's all for now - many thanks to all who helped with the RallyNews ... Brian & Liz Patterson.
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