RALLY NEWS NO.8                         Malton Showgrounds/Sunday Noon

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 13 HOUSEDALE 2
1st (1) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Focus WRC) 1.19.29.7
2nd (2) Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Impreza WRC) 1.21.37.4
3rd (6) Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin (Focus WRC) 1.22.06.2
4th (7) Steve Perez/Claire Mole (Focus WRC) 1.23.12.1
5th (4) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.23.46.8
6th (8) Steve Petch/John Richardson (Accent WRC) 1.24.04.1
7th (12) Chris Mellors/Craig Thorley (Esc.Cos) 1.24.32.1
8th (5) Barry Johnson/Stewart Merry (Impreza WRC) 1.24.54.5
9th (15) John Lloyd/Pauline Gullick (Impreza) 1.28.13.9
10th (18) Tony Thompson/John Dunning (Lancer N) 1.28.33.9
       (10) Seb Ling/James Phillips (Lancer N) 1.28.33.9
12th (48) Jon Ingram/Mark Lewis (Impreza WRC) 1.28.58.7

Just one stage remaining on this Trackrod Yorkshire Rally, and through stage 13, Housedale 2, there were no big changes to the leaderboard. The lead drivers now  have one eye on the chequered flag.  Mark Higgins was fastest through that Housedale 2 stage, 4s faster than Jonny Milner, with Steve Perez 3rd fastest, just half a second slower than Jonny.  The stage is a fairly straightforward one, long straights and square corners, not technical, and the bright sunshine was drying the roads out.  Mark Higgins reported all well at stage finish. Jonny Milner did say that he ran wide on a few corners and grazed a couple of stones, but otherwise OK, it was really a matter of getting the braking distances right.   Matthew Wilson was 4s slower than Milner and Perez, but Matthew is looking fairly secure in 3rd place, with a good gap behind and in front. 

Austin MacHale was equal fastest with Mark Higgins through stage 12, the Showgrounds, but dropped quite a bit of time to all the cars around him through stage 13.  The Dubliner arrived at stage finish with his wipers flailing away in the bright sunshine, his windscreen covered in some sort of oil of grease, and very smeared. 

Steve Petch and Chris Mellors were more or less level pegging, just a few seconds between them on the stage. Petch just having the edge having had a little electrical glitch sorted out in his Accent's gear change mechanism. Tony Thompson and Sebastian Ling remarkably recorded exactly the same time for stage 13, the 2 drivers tying for the lead for the group N section of the rally.  Ling is very much thinking of Pirelli championship points, but at the same time would dearly love to win gpN on the day as well.  Lorna Smith had a fairly good run through 13. She is now lying 13th o/a and 3rd gpN, comfortably ahead of Dorian Rees in 4th gpN. Dorian does lead the Prodrive Subaru Cup points.

In Super 1600 Leon Pesticcio holds the ace cards in his Suzuki Ignis, and has backed off considerably, leaving Barry Clark and Jonnie Wigmore to battle it out for 2nd place in their respective Pumas.  News of a further retirement from last night was that Kate Heath called it a day, her Subaru engine not too happy. That left 39 cars starting today from the original 43 starters.

In the Fiat Stilo Cup Shaun Woffinden was leading after stage 11, by 38s from Chris Davies.
On the Cork 20 Rally, following the first stage this morning, Tim McNulty still led convincingly from Derek McGarrity, who in turn slightly increased his advantage over Eugene Donnelly. There are 5 stages remaining in Cork, and if the positions remain as they are McGarrity will be Pirelli Tarmac Champion once more. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net    (our thanks to Roving Reporter ANDREW KELLITT)