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MANX TALES NO.3 Douglas/Grandstand/Thursday 10pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 5 CRINGLE
1st (2) Mark Higgins/Craig Thorley (Octavia WRC) 24.51.9
2nd (1) Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Impreza WRC) 24.56.8
3rd (3) Kenny McKinstry/Noel Orr (Impreza WRC) 25.08.9
4th (7) Paul Bird/Andrew Bargery (Focus WRC) 25.24.8
5th (10) Dougi Hall/Steve Egglestone (Focus WRC) 25.39.0
6th (8) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 25.39.9
7th (4) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 25.40.5
8th (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 25.56.4
9th (21) Rob Watson/Norman Quayle (Lancer N) 25.59.9
10th (12) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 26.04.1
Despite thick fog and damp roads Mark Higgins turned on the style through
stage 5, Cringle, to reinforce his lead. Mark moved in front of Milner on the
second Castletown spectator stage, and then went 4s faster over Cringle, and
that was despite his Octavia's rear bumper trailing the ground. Higgins could
hardly suppress his grin when asked about the bumper. "Would you believe we got
out of the car to check the tyre pressures at the start of the Cringle stage,
I hadn't the hand brake on fully or else it didn't grip and the car rolled
back into a wall, with me and Craig running after it trying to stop it! The
stage went well, although the throttle pedal was playing up. I was reasonably
careful in the fog, but there's life in the old dog yet!" Co-driver Craig
Thorley told us. "I'm losing my voice, shouting the notes like hell and the bias of
the intercom seems to be wrong. It was good fun in there through the fog down
the mines!" Jonny Milner said. "We had a couple of moments on shiny tar in
the fog, otherwise OK. We put the 2 spare full wet tyres on to the front at
Castletown where the rain was lashing down". (One of the marshals at Castletown,
doing a sterling job in the pouring rain, reported seeing lightning strike
off the sea and said it was like Dantes inferno!")
Kenny McKinstry looked very solid in 3rd as he came into the overnight halt,
Kenny's co driver Noel Orr telling us. "Steady as he goes, mission
accomplished for tonight. This is a new car for us, and difficult conditions. The
on-board computer read-out will show a few confidence lifts. But we had good team
work through the fog with the notes". McKinstry himself said. "A couple of the
chicanes arrived very quickly!"
Not so happy was Melvyn Evans. His Subaru cut out at the start of the
Castletown stage and wouldn't re-start - end of rally. Not smiling either was Derek
McGarrity. Although he is still in the rally and in a handy enough 7th
place. Derek told us about that stage 6. "The car filled up with smoke, I thought
it was going to go on fire. I switched off the anti lag and all the
differentials. The paddle gear change wouldn't work and I went on to the manual change
with only 3 gears. I actually stopped in the stage, but didn't get out of the
car I was that worried about the fire. It looks like it is just the gearbox
that's broken but I don't know for sure what caused it". The totally dejected
Tarmac Champion then said. "I know we could have won this rally".
Eugene Donnelly said. "The car's good, everything is working well, but I'm
really struggling not knowing where I'm going". (Eugene has never rallied on
the Island before and is severely lacking Manx practice).
Further stories include - Steve Perez's Vodka Kick Focus WRC suffering a rear
puncture on stage 2 and another one on stage 5, Steve adamant that he didn't
hit anything and most unhappy. Matthew Wilson had 2 spins in stage 5, then
lost some time in the fog. Dougi Hall had a really good run through stage 5 to
move up the leaderboard a couple of places, just behind Paul Bird, Paul fastest
through the 3 spectator stages, Ramsey and the 2 Castletown stages. Ollie
O'Donovan told us. "The car was flying after the earlier turbo problem, but the
driver ran out of talent, spun on a hairpin right and stalled the car. The car
wouldn't restart and I had to switch off the lights, diffs, everything. The
horns came out on me after that, maybe that's what I needed!" Eamonn Boland
has lost the oil out of his Subaru rear differential and had to revert to the
manual gear change system. Austin MacHale was unhappy after stage 5 complaining
of only 2 recce runs. George Tracey in the Peugeot 206 WRC said "We're having
a shit time, car's handling like a pig, all over the shop". Guy Wilks,
leading Super 1600 in the Ignis, has some handling troubles with the car, co driver
Phil Pugh saying. "Big overshoot, car trying to jump off the road, leading is
a bonus, caught and passed 2 cars in stage 5".
Group N leader Rob Watson said. "Its awesome, great, a few big slides, hand
brake has got a bit stretched, happy now, want some more rain!". Japanese
driver Fumio Nutahara, 4th in GpN, said. "Velly difficult stage in fog". More in
morning. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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