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WEE MANX
TALES NO.3
End of stage 6/Saturday 09.45
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 BAROOSE
1st (3) Ken McKinstry/Noel Orr (Impreza WRC) 32.26.7
2nd (14) Paul Bird/Andrew Bargery (Focus WRC) 33.09.5
3rd (17) Mark Perrott/Paul Morris (Escort WRC) 33.09.7
4th (2) Melvyn Evans/Martin Henry (Impreza WRC) 33.15.4
5th (4) Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield (WRC) 33.43.4
6th (16) Steve Perez/Daniel Barritt (Focus WRC) 33.52.1
7th (21) Geoff Jones/Rhydian Welson (Impreza N) 33.57.7
8th (15) Craig Middleton/Robin Hernaman (Accent WRC) 34.00.7
9th (1) David Mann/Alun Cook (Impreza WRC) 34.04.8
10th (9) Marcus Dodd/Stephen McAuley (Accent WRC) 34.17.3
11th (20) Brendan Crealey/Steve Harris (Lancer N) 34.28.3
12th (8) Steve Fleck/Nigel Gardner (Impreza WRC) 34.34.8
Kenny McKinstry was first on the road this morning, the Ulsterman happy with his
first stage of the day. Kenny picked a Pirelli RE in deference to the wet
roads, and said they worked well. The rally leader had his Subaru clutch
changed at service last night, as a precaution, when some strange readings came
up on the on-dash computer. He said it all looked good this morning.
Not so with Melvyn Evans, he reckoned his Subaru clutch was slipping just after
the start of the stage, felt it could be down to a drop of oil on the plates and
was hoping it would dry out. Melvyn was just a few seconds off the top
pace, whereas Mark Perrott turned in an absolute screamer of a time in his
Escort WRC. Fastest by far, to move from an overnight 4th to 3rd. Perrott
said it was hard to judge the grip but he certainly seems to have got it right.
That's one of Mark's favourite stages anyway, and he has set fastest times there
before. Paul Bird was surprised to be only a second down on McKinstry, he
felt he was cruising. David Mann, last year's winner of this Roush Manx
National, got the hairpin wrong in Barroose and damaged the front of his
Subaru WRC, only lost a few seconds.
In Group N Geoff Jones set a stunning time, and said "Felt good, the tyres
worked well". Brendan Crealey had lost a few seconds on last night's
stages when the car was dying, but said it felt good this morning, the engineers
found a clogged filter on the petrol line out of the tank. Brendan also said
"The car's not as skippy, feels good, its up to me to get the finger out
now and stop lifting the right foot". Roy White was the fastest of
the Evo Challenge contenders, with Paul Wedgbury and Michael Curran tying for
2nd fastest. Michael Sansom is still the highest placed Evo contender in 13th
overall. Paul Wedgbury's dashing co-driver Neil Dashfield was telling us
of an "animal magic" moment last night when on one stage they had to
slow down and nearly stop for a precession of 7 ducks. Then they narrowly missed
a cat, and then had a coming together with a pheasant! Michael Curran
moved up the overnight results slightly when he was compensated 5s for a delay
behind a crashed Nova in stage 1.
In the Peugeot 206 Super Cup Chris Moore had a 21s advantage on Stuart Jones
with Gareth MacHale a further 10s back, Mike Faulkner a further 14 in arrears.
Interestingly Chris Moore felt that he wasn't really getting it together last
night, he didn'' have one decent stage. Stuart Jones reported mishearing a note
and shooting up an escape road. Gareth MacHale also had several overshoots.
Colin Britton rolled his 206 and was continuing minus windscreen.
More leaderboard news - Mark Perrott was fastest on stage 7 to move into 2nd
overall, 35s behind McKinstry. Paul Bird had a poor enough time and has dropped
from 2nd to 4th.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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