RALLY NEWS NO.8                  Felindre- Saturday  5.30pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 12 Halfway 2
1st (6) Markko Martin/Michael Park (Ford) 2.11.21.8
2nd (11) Petter Solberg/Philip Mills (Subaru) 2.11.23.6
3rd (4) Carlos Sainz/Luis Moya (Ford) 2.11.49.2
4th (1) Richard Burns/Robert Reid (Peugeot) 2.12.18.3
5th (10) Tommi Makinen/Kaj Lindstrom (Subaru) 2.12.59.6
6th (5) Colin McRae/Derek Ringer (Ford) 2.13.01.0
7th (21) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Xsara) 2.13.23.7
8th (24) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Ford) 2.14.11.4
9th (18) Freddy Loix/Sven Smeets (Accent) 2.14.30.7
10th (19) Juha Kankkunen/Juha Repo (Accent) 2.14.48.4
11th Rovanpera 12th Gardemeister 13th Panizzi 14th Stohl

Petter Solberg was fastest through stages 11 and 12, but by just the blink of an eye from his hard charging rival Markko Martin.  Richard Burns, Tommi Makinen, Carlos Sainz, Colin McRae and Loeb were all within a second or two on both stages, but it is the 2 young drivers at the front who are making the headlines. Solberg said "I hope everything will work well for tomorrow, I am enjoying it". While Markko Martin's English co driver Michael Park told us "We are enjoying the battle, learning a lot, maybe we picked slightly the wrong Pirelli tyres for these stages. On the 2nd run through they got greasy, as the loose gravel cut through it was like polished cobble stones underneath".  Carlos Sainz reported no problems. While Richard Burns felt his tyres lost a little bit of their edge on the 2nd run through the stages.  Richard's co driver Robert Reid is still having lots of discomfort from his damaged ribs, but the pair are still in a position that if they make a big charge in the morning they could be right in the frame. Tommi Makinen admitted to making a couple of very small mistakes through Crychan 2, running just a trifle wide but otherwise having a very good run.  Colin McRae said "No real problem, sllippy".  When asked who will win, he laughed and said "I don't think both will reach the end". 

Harri Rovanpera did well to reach service here at Felindre - he has had to suffer a damaged rear wheel bearing which also damaged the brakes, and was running on front brakes only through stages 10,11 and 12, dropping a minute a stage.  Mark Higgins commented "All is OK, slight problem with the gear change but nothing too bad. This is still a big learning experience for me".  When asked about his brother David in the Barretts Subaru, he said "Yes, he has crashed out, but walking out of the stage, both OK". 

News of further retirements includes - Eamonn Boland stopped with a mechanical problem in his Subaru. Peter Stephenson also retired, with power steering problems.

In the Junior World Rally section, both Gwyndaf Evans in the MG and Niall McShea in the Corsa have suffered problems.  Sola still leads from Basso. In Group N Oscar Svedlund leads from James Thompson, just under a minute between them. Nik Elsmore 3rd Gavin Cox 4th. More news later. BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON