RALLY NEWS NO.5                 Malton Showgrounds/Saturday 4.45

UNOFFICIAL LEADEBOARD AFTER STAGE 8  Cropton 2
1st (1) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Focus WRC) 50.55.1
2nd (2) Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Impreza WRC) 52.07.7
3rd (6) Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin (Focus WRC) 52.44.6
4th (7) Steve Perez/Claire Mole (Focus WRC) 53.11.1
5th (4) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 53.29.7
6th (8) Steve Petch/John Richardson (Accent WRC) 53.45.8
7th (12) Chris Mellors/Craig Thorley (Esc.Cos) 54.14.6
8th (5) Barry Johnson/Stewart Merry (Impreza WRC) 54.25.4
9th (9) Ryan Champion/Glenn Patterson (Lancer N) 56.22.2
10th (18) Tony Thompson/John Dunning (Lancer N) 56.27.6
  
A massive rain shower made Cropton even slippier than before, but the drivers all seemed reasonably OK.  Mark Higgins reported "We made a different tyre choice, the car is not stalling under braking, going quite well and I got the launch control switched on early that time, no more stalling".  Jonny Milner did report the stage very greasy, but still set 2nd fastest time, while young Matthew Wilson was 3rd quickest, and moved up to 3rd overall, not that David Higgins has departed the fray.  17 year old Matthew is driving with enormous maturity and flair this weekend, although he did say about that 2nd visit to Cropton. "We were very wild on one corner and had to back off a shade".  Steve Perez was happy with his tyre choice and his Vodka Kick car went well through stage 8.  Steve Petch made a mess of one of the chicanes last time through Cropton, and this time said. "No stalls, less commitment, more accuracy". 

In Group N Ryan Champion has fitted new rear brake pads to his Lancer, says it has transformed the car and he has surged back into the category lead, his stage 6 puncture well behind him.  Tony Thompson has moved into 10th and 2nd gpN, having a great run. John Lloyd is 11th in his group A Impreza. Sebastien Ling 12th and Dorian Rees has slipped to 13th, 4th in Group N after a poor time in stage 8 Cropton, reason as yet unknown. Jon Ingram is 14th Lorna Smith 15th.

In Super 1600 Leon Pesticcio spun the Suzuki in stage 8, dropped a few seconds and Barry Clark set a faster time, but Leon leads the category overall, by 24s from Barry.  Stuart Jones has now slipped way down the order after losing a mountain of time in stage 6 when his Proton front hub broke.  Young Stephen Petch has retired his Peugeot, the car having lost drive. 

Dessie Nutt has won the Historic part of the rally in his Porsche 911 from Patrick Watts.  Richard Gower was in front of category 2 from David Stokes and Stig Blomqvist led category 3 from Gareth Lloyd, both in Escorts. Martin Freestone's example has retired with gearbox trouble.

Alan Dickson leads the National part of the event from Steve Bannister with Matt Yeadon 3rd. Paul Alexander had been leading, but retired following a puncture and other damage.  On the Cork 20 Rally, final round of the Pirelli Tarmac series this weekend, Tim McNulty now leads from the similar Impreza WRC of Derek McGarrity with Eugene Donnelly 3rd in his Corolla. Liam McCarthy is 4th. Ollie O'Donovan 5th and Denis Cronin 6th. Earlier we reported that Donie O'Sullivan had rolled his Focus WRC. Donie's co driver Paul Nagle has sent a text to say that damage was light.

More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
(with thanks to Super Roving Reporter Andrew Kellitt, and Bob Morland)