UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFATER STAGE 2 Watergate Park

1^st (15) Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Corolla WRC) 2.45.4

2^nd (25) Johan Kressner/Cato Menkerud (Impreza WRC) 2.47.4

3^rd (12) Marcus Dodd/John Bennie (Impreza WRC) 2.48.2

4^th (11) Mark Higgins/Mike Gibson (Focus) 2.48.5

5^th (35) Barry Johnson/Peter Croft (Impreza WRC) 2.50.1

6^th (14) David Higgins/Daniel Barritt (Impreza N) 2.51.4

7^th (16) Austin McHale/Brian Murphy (Corolla WRC) 2.52.0

8^th (17) Tapio Laukkanen/Ilka Riipinen (Impreza N) 2.54.2

9^th (31) Nik Elsmore/Huw Lewis (Lancer N) 2.54.5

10^th (30) Bob Ceen/Alistair Douglas (Impreza) 2.54.9

Jonny Milner reports that he is now totally relaxed with his Corolla WRC, just loves the car and it seems to be very reliable. The short spectator stage at Gateshead is a far cry from the Kielder forest stages of course, but it is never too soon to start winning. Swedish driver Johan Kressner fairly threw his Subaru through those first spectator stages, the black machine sideways at every opportunity. Marcus Dodd makes up the top 3, this is Marcus’ first drive in anger with the latest customer specification Impreza WRC. Mark Higgins in 4^th reported his Focus very comfortable, but the 99 spec car not nearly as quick as the latest 2002 model he had been driving at a customer day in Belgium on Thursday. Mark has Mike Gibson co driving instead of Bryan Thomas. Mike was to have sat with Neil Simpson, but his entry was withdrawn at the last minute when the sponsorshipship deal did not materialise. Mike Brown is also a non-starter, his car destroyed in a fire. Not all the drivers found the stage plain sailing – Phil Morgan damaged the steering on his Subaru and the mechanics were having trouble getting the car fixed, indeed he may by now have retired. Donegal man Stuart Darcy, out for the first time in a 1600 Puma, got 30s penalty on the way to the stage, when the Killybegs pairing wrong slotted on the Gateshead roads. Robert Woodside set special stage times, which would have put him inside the top 10, but a 20s road penalty dropped him to 34^th.

Best Super 1600 finisher on the International part of the rally was James Thompson in the Peugeot 106 from Gwyndaf Evans in the MG ZR. As can be seen above, David Higgins was fastest of the gpN cars in his Barretts Subaru, David fresh from rally victory in Oregon last week.

The National part of the rally today is split into 2 sections – one specially dedicated to the Peugeot 206 Super Cup runners and Marko Ramanen was fastest from Chris Moore with Shaun Gallagher 3^rd. In the National Rally last year’s McRae Scholar Mark Wheeler was fastest in his 1400 Puma from James Smith in his VW Polo. Andy Rowe was 3^rd in a Puma, Ryan Champion (Puma) 4^th, Ian Forgan also in a Puma was 5^th and Robert Chalmers was 6^th and first Ford Ka.

More news after stage 3 Falstone…BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON