RALLY NEWS NO.7                     Charterhall Service - Saturday 12.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 13 MACKS MILL
1st (1) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 1.24.31.0
2nd (4) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.24.48.3
3rd (6) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.26.16.4
4th (5) David Higgins/Daniel Barritt (Accent WRC) 1.27.27.4
5th (15) Dougi Hall/Steve Egglestone (Focus WRC) 1.27.30.3
6th (2) Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Impreza WRC) 1.27.59.0
7th (3) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.28.05.4
8th (12) Barry Johnson/Stewart Merry (Impreza WRC) 1.31.26.5
9th (30) Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Ignis) 1.31.50.9
10th (9) Paul Bird/Andrew Bargery (Focus WRC) 1.32.18.5

Through stages 11, 12 and 13 Andrew Nesbitt was a few seconds quicker than Eugene Donnelly on each one to open the gap up to 17s between the 2 cars.  Andrew brought his Subaru into service with a large chunk missing from a front rim.  It was amazing that the Pirelli tyre didn't deflate.  He commented. "I don't know what we hit, it was something on the racing line and I just heard the bang, didn't see it.  Whatever it was, it wasn't there on the recce."  Eugene Donnelly said. "We're going just about as hard as we can, there may be a little left, but not much. There's no point in me throwing the Corolla off the road, Andy got the jump on us on the first stage after last service, I was very conservative over the gravel bits.  I think we're doing grand for the machinery we're in, its getting to the point where we have to be a bit more sensible. We've done what we can, he wants to win, I want the Tarmac points".   Just then Scrutineer Rab McDonald appeared at Eugene's elbow and explained that they were taking samples from the top cars. When asked the reason, Rab replied. "It is supposed to be a FIA standard fuel, we are checking that there are no additives, that the fuel isn't of a higher octane rating than it should be". 

Derek McGarrity commented that he had lowered his Impreza, that it was a lot more comfortable and stable.  Co-driver Dermot O'Gorman said. "On that short stage there were 2 real big jumps, one of them we had cautioned and it was OK. One we hadn't cautioned and it was a bit of a handling!" 

Dramas on that last loop of stages included Paul Bird getting a puncture straight out of service into the stage, and under the new ruling, rather than change the wheel in the control zone, he had to take his start time, go into the stage and change it there.  Young Matthew Wilson had a problem on the Eccles stage when he got caught out of a very slippy wet patch, locked the wheels and went sideways into a 2nd gear right 2, and hit a tree with the rear left corner of his Focus WRC.  The car then got stuck in a ditch and the spectators hauled it out with the help of a rope.  The ever cheerful co-driver Scott Martin said. "We're still here though".  Matthew didn't actually lose such a huge amount of time, perhaps 4 minutes.

In Group N Paul Wedgbury stole a march on his rivals by picking just the right tyre, an intermediate, and has opened up a gap of a minute on 2nd placed Roy White, with Rory Galligan a further 7s back.  The cars outside the top 10 seem to be much more affected by torrential rain showers and hailstones on that loop of 3 stages than the leading cars.

Steve Perez, currently lying 12th overall in the Vodka Kick Focus WRC said. "At every stage start the rain poured down. I think God is saying to me, you've been a bad boy, here's some more rain!" Roy White said. "We were on hard dry weather slicks on one stage, when the flag dropped I couldn't see the end of the bonnet for the rain, couldn't drive the car for aquaplaning all over the road".   Further retirements include Martin Sansom with differential trouble and Paddy White with transmission difficulties on his Focus WRC. John Cope didn't leave parc ferme this morning, his car also suffering transmission gremlins.

More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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