RALLY NEWS NO.5                             Canford Service/Saturday 2pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 10 Bere Heath
1st  (1) Marcus Dodd/Stephen McAuley (Corolla WRC) 42.34.1
2nd (29) Craig Middleton/Robin Hernaman (Accent WRC) 42.55.1
3rd (6) Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield (Impreza WRC) 42.55.2
4th (7) Steve Petch/John Richardson (Accent WRC) 43.07.3
5th (4) Barry Johnson/Stewart Merry (Impreza WRC) 43.14.5
6th (18) Geoff Jones/Rhydian Welson (Impreza N) 43.16.1
7th (17) Brendan Crealey/Steve Harris (Lancer N) 43.26.0
8th (30) Dorian Rees/Patrick Walsh (Impreza N) 43.26.7
9th (16) Steve Perez/Plug Pulleyn (Focus WRC) 43.32.1
10th (10) Phil Morgan/Martin Douglas (Impreza WRC) 43.42.8

The above times are unofficial, although there is little doubt that Marcus Dodd is starting to build a reasonable lead at the head of this Rallye Sunseeker.  Marcus seemed remarkably calm when he came into service after stage 10, and commented "We're taking it very steady, those 3 stages had a lot less snow, very enjoyable".  Craig Middleton in 2nd reports a tooth missing of his Hyundai drop gear, and he is trying to save the transmission as best he can. Roger Duckworth in 3rd reports no problems.  Steve Petch in 4th is having a good run and Barry Johnson in 5th is taking a softly softly approach on his first visit to the Sunseeker.

Geoff Jones has had a minute knocked off his total time following an earlier mix up, so Geoff moves into 6th and leads Group N in his new Subaru.  Brendan Crealey is just 10s behind in the Lancer, Brendan lost a few seconds in stage 9 when he cut a corner and flattened the turbo pipe on a tree stump. Rory Galligan is now 4th in gpN and 13th overall. Martin Sansom is 15th and 5th in gpN. Paul Wedgbury 16th and 6th gpN. Nik Elsmore 18th and 7th gpN. Richard Hill 20th and 8th gpN. Roy White speeding up now and 9th gpN, 21st overall. Michael Curran is 22nd overall and 10th gpN.

Andrew Burton cut the same corner but he was very unlucky when his Peugeot Cosworth went up on 2 wheels, across the track and got lodged on its side up against a tree. 

Other stories from the leaders include Paul Bird having a couple of 5th gear overshoots into firebreaks and lost quite a few seconds. Stephen Harron's Subaru had a small engine fire in stage 9, Wareham, he had to drive quietly through stage 10 with no anti lag system working, he still holds 11th overall, one place ahead of Paul Bird.

Ian Gwynne has retired his Group N Impreza, a broken gearbox reportedly the cause. Steve Perez is having a good run and holding on to his top 10 place very nicely.  Others speeding up include Mark Perrott, who is up to 19th now, having been down in 32nd following a slow start.  Ollie O'Donovan has dropped to 17th following a problem with his engine. It was cutting out, there was part of the throttle mechanism changed and now he is not really getting full power. 

News of another retirement is that young Philip Morrow has gone off the road in stage 9.  

In the Peugeot 206 Super Cup after stage 7 Paul Jones was leading from Stuart Jones with Boardman 3rd. Gareth MacHale 4th and Ieuan Rowlands 5th.  Stage 6 caused an upset amongst the Peugeot Super Cup runners when Chris Moore went off the road for a minute, Mike Faulkner went off for 2 minutes and Gareth MacHale was held up behind a slower car. Mike Harris had an accident in his Peugeot when he tried to use the handbrake and a snow bank to slow down, but rolled the car.

More news to follow:  BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON              www.rallynews.net