RALLY NEWS NO.1                                Bournemouth/Friday 6pm

"There's more snow here in Bournemouth than there was on the Swedish a few weeks ago" observed one of the drivers at Somerley House, at the press warm-up for this Rallye Sunseeker. The weather may be cold, but the entry is certainly hot - white hot. Around 130 cars are entered; any one of about 20 can win.  There is the added interest in the rally, apart from being the opening round of the ANCRO Championship, of being the first counter in this year's Peugeot 206 Super Cup competition as well as the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Challenge. The Lancers run in GpN, Production trim. Also in the entry is the latest Impreza N10 in Geoff Jones' capable hands, which should be an interesting comparison with the fastest of the Lancers.

Marcus Dodd is No.1 seed, the four times winner of this Rallye Sunseeker, driving David Greer's Corolla WRC. Co-driven by Ulsterman Stephen McAuley, Marcus commented at scrutineering in the Littledown Leisure Centre "I like the Corolla, it is a nice style of a car and it is good to be driving something different. Obviously it will take a while to get used to it. I'm really here for the fun".  At No.2 is current ANCRO Champion David Mann. He is driving a newly acquired Impreza WRC, a right hand drive car, his old one was left hand drive.  David may also take a few stages to settle down.  At No.3 is Andy Burton in his unbelievable rear -engined Peugeot. Andy is on a real roll at the minute and if he gets a good run will be very hard to beat.  Barry Johnson at No.4 is driving his usual Subaru, but the car is sold, a new WRC is on its way, so Barry will be anxious not to do any damage. Mark Perrott at 5 is the 2002 ANCRO Champion and Mark commented at scrutineering, "We're here to win". 

Interestingly, on tonight's spectator stage along the promenade the cars will run in reverse seed order so the top drivers will be last through.  In the forest stages tomorrow status quo will resume with the No.1 car first on the road.  At least he may be first on the road. If there is overnight snow and the forecast heavy frost it could happen that the top drivers will try to hang back so as not to be acting as snowploughs for the cars behind.  When quizzed about having any worries as regards running first on the road, Marcus Dodd expressed the opinion that it wouldn't really make a lot of difference.  We shall see. 

Chris Moore is the first of the Peugeot 206 Super Cup drivers, the Geordie fireman having Hamish Campbell stepping in at the last minute to co-drive.  Just over 20 Peugeots Super Cup crews are doing the rally, and competition should be fierce.  Young Stephen Petch is amongst them and he had a race against time to get his car repaired after an accident last weekend in Yorkshire.  Just some of the top names in the Peugeots include Ieuan Rowlands, winner of the Winter Cup.  Rodney Wilton and Gareth MacHale have made the trip from Ireland.  Alistair Moffatt, young Stuart Jones, Mike Faulkner are all rated amongst the favourites to collect top Peugeot points.

In the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Challenge there are so many top drivers its almost impossible to pick a favourite.  Last year's winner Brendan Crealey will be the yardstick in the new "works" car, although Brendan reported some problems with the engine mapping during the week.  Paul Wedgbury, Nik Elsmore, Roy White, Rory Galligan, Anthony Willington and Will Nicholls are the top 6 seeds, but really it is very wide open.  

Looking at the overall entry again, outside the top 5 we have Roger Duckworth in his Impreza, Steve Petch in his Accent WRC, Bob Ceen in an Impreza, Martyn Harrison in a Metro 6R4. Phil Morgan driving the Impreza WRC that Tapio Laukkanen won Galway International with a couple of weeks ago.  There are two Focus WRC cars in the hands of Paul Bird and Steve Perez. Wild cars for victory include Irishmen Stephen Harron and Ollie O'Donovan, both driving Kenny McKinstry prepared Subaru WRCs.    More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON  www.rallynews.net