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RALLY
NEWS NO.7 Kent showground-service-Sat. 4.30 UNOFFICIAL L/BOARD ASHFORD RALLY AFTER SS11 KINGSWOOD 2 1st (31) Garry Jennings/James O'Brien (Peugeot) 56.05 2nd (33) Ryan Champion/Cliff Simmons (Peugeot) 56.25 3rd (38) Daniel & Clive Dunbabin (Peugeot) 57.29 4th (43) Richard Sykes/Mark Andrews (Peugeot) 58.36 5th (49) Paul Jones/Steve Smallbone (Peugeot) 58.54 6th (41) Shaun Woffinden/Martin Carter (Ford) 59.18 7th 44) Shaun Gallagher/Greg Shinnors (Peugeot) 59.29 8th (37) Chris Moore/Mike Panes (Peugeot) 59.52 (47) Matthew Fowle/Martin Smith (Peugeot) 59.52 10th (40) David Henderson/Ian Windress (Ford) 59.53 Through stage 9 Garry Jennings was 6s faster than Ryan Champion and through stage 10 he was 1s faster. Through stage 11 he was also 1s faster. When the Fermanagh man arrived in here to service he commented "I'm not pushing the car now, I'm very pleased to be on the pace in the forests. James is pulling me back on the notes, taking no real chances". Jennings is still looking very pale and confirmed "I don't feel well at all but I'm putting that out of my mind in the stages". Ryan Champion commented "The stages are very slippy in places, I dropped a few seconds in a particularly slippy downhill hairpin right, which has caught out a lot of people, it is just so slidy. We had a misfire earlier that that's cured, the only trouble now is jumping out of gear occasionally". Ryan went on to admit that he was disappointed to be 20s behind Jennings, that he is a bit fed up with being 2nd all the time recently! Third placed Daniel Dunbabin told us "We've had an overshoot a couple of stages ago, it's really slippy in places, but otherwise we're happy enough, plugging away. We were having a great battle with Simon Hughes and felt that something had to give. This time it was him". Indeed, young Simon slid his Peugeot into the ditch and semi blocked the stage, causing a delay to the following cars. Because of this, the Ashford Rally competitors are going to have the final 2 stages chopped from their schedule. In the Ford Puma category of the Ashford Rally Shaun Woffinden has moved into the lead from David Henderson. Guy Wilks was leading earlier but his Puma had a driveshaft joint problem, and struggled through the last 3 stages on just one wheel drive, losing quite a bit of time on each of the stages. Woffinden commented "We've been pacing ourselves, and now its paying off". Chris Moore told us that his Peugeot dropped down a bank when a brake pipe was sheared by a flying stone - the only way Chris had of stopping the car as it went further and further down the embankment was to run it into a tree! Co driver Mike Panes had to jump out and help push it back up the hill, and although they lost several minutes, are still in the rally. They had been 4th and hoping for 3rd, but outside the top 10 now. Adrian McElvaney has been forced into retirement when he had a touch of the red mist - he caught another car, couldn't get past, got so frustrated he rammed the back of it, and burst his own radiator! Darren Snape now leads the Ford Kas from Ed Pugh - Forgan has been forced into retirement when his Ka suffered a broken ball joint. Mark Roper was another to run into the back of another competitor, Mark smashing his radiator and again was forced into retirement. Duval still leads the Super 1600 Kent Rally, Dale was joint fastest with Duval on 6m12s, Rowe 5s back and reportedly with some suspension damage. More news later..BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
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