RALLY NEWS NO.8             Charterhall Service - Saturday 2.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE  16 Macks Mill 2
1st (1) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 1.44.35.8
2nd (4) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.44.57.8
3rd (6) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.46.41.8
4th (5) David Higgins/Daniel Barritt (Accent WRC) 1.48.12.2
5th (2) Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Impreza WRC) 1.48.39.3
6th (3) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.48.41.9
7th (15) Dougi Hall/Steve Egglestone (Focus WRC) 1.48.59.3
8th (12) Barry Johnson/Stewart Merry (Impreza WRC) 1.52.47.4
9th (30) Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Ignis) 1.54.13.9
10th (14) Steve Perez/Carl Williamson (Focus WRC) 1.54.36.5

With 7 stages to go including 4 runs over the Langton spectator test this Jim Clark Rally is far from over, but at the same time there was little change at the top over the last 3 stages.  Andrew Nesbitt was fastest through stage 14, by just a couple of seconds from Derek McGarrity with Eugene Donnelly a split second behind. On stage 15 Eccles 2, Donnelly was fastest by just over a second from Nesbitt with McGarrity 12s back. Then on stage 16 Nesbitt was fastest again taking 4s from Donnelly, who in turn was 3s ahead of McGarrity. The gap between Nesbitt and Donnelly is now 22s with the former commenting here at service. "The Eccles stage was unbelievably slippy, a lot of rain, I nearly got caught out at a big jump, hardly could get stopped for the next corner".  As Nesbitt was saying this he was also indicating to service supremo Kenny McKinstry to make sure that Sam checked the wheel alignment on the car.  Eugene Donnelly said. "This thing (Corolla) doesn't like the jumps, lands very nose down. But then we're not hanging about either".  Derek McGarrity reported no real problems, lots of changing tyres from the spare to the front to the back to try to combat the changeable weather.  David Higgins is still struggling to come to grips with his Hyundai on tarmac. Thought a few places looking at the road it was abrasive, but the car just carried on under braking causing him quite a few moments. Jonny Milner has been nibbling away at Higgins' advantage. Still has a bit to go, but Jonny is more than pleased to be lying 2nd amongst the Pirelli BRC points scoring runners.

Austin MacHale isn't giving up the hunt either and he is just 2s behind Milner. An earlier stage time which Austin thought was suspect has been corrected by 10s to keep the race very close.  Dougi Hall lost a bit of time on the first stage after service when he spun his Impreza on a gravel section. In his panic to get reverse and then 1st gear Dougi knocked a chip off a gear, and the box is hopefully going to be changed here at service now. Barry Johnson in 8th landed his Subaru very heavily on a stage 16 jump, the crew feel that something is damaged under the car. Matthew Wilson is now 13th after his earlier accident, and on the 2nd visit to the same stage found himself being extremely cautious and dropped a few seconds. 

Steve Perez has knocked a front bumper off his Vodka Kick Focus WRC on a massive jump, otherwise OK, and has now come into the top 10.

In Group N Paul Wedgbury is able to take it a little bit more cautiously, his closest opposition in the shape of Roy White has retired his Lancer with engine problems. So now it is Sebastian Ling who is closest, just over 1m behind. Whereas Paul Wedgbury is concentrating on scoring Evo Challenge points, Ling's goal is Pirelli BRC.  3rd in GpN is Nik Elsmore and try as he may he finds his older model Lancer just losing out on the wet and slippy roads. James Foley is up to 4th gpN.  Lorna Smith in the 22 Motorsport prepared Impreza is now creeping into the top 20 and possibly 5th gpN.  Lorna escaped a huge sideways sliding moment earlier when her Impreza careered down a ditch, hit something fairly hard which just bounced it back on to the road undamaged. Her team mate Jenni-Lee Hermansson also had a moment earlier when her Impreza suffered a centre differential problem.   At one point the car swapped ends, clattered into a hedge and knocked the bumper off. Aaron MacHale has retired his Lancer with a damaged rear diff.  Dermot Hanafin has survived a few hair raising moments in the FitzSamuel Insurance Impreza and he is now creeping up the leaderboard and into the top 30.

In Super 1600 Guy Wilks has had it more or less all his own way since early in the rally. The Suzuki engineers tried a slightly different tarmac set up over the last few stages in preparation for the Manx Rally. But it nearly went wrong for Guy when, after a big crest jump, the car slithered on into a square right with the wheels locked up and nosed into a wall. He got away with it relatively undamaged. Leon Pesticcio was well down in the dumps after sustaining a puncture, having to stop and change it and dropped 5mins in Eccles 2. Barry Clark has rolled his Puma out of the rally. Jonnie Wigmore is still going strong and 2nd Super 1600. Shaun Woffinden took the lead of the Fiat Stilo Cup when William Bonniwell's example suffered a puncture, Bonniwell on a fight back.

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