UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 7  Black Adder

1^st (2) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Focus WRC) 48.42.6

2^nd (6) Tim McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 49.03.4

3^rd (3) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 49.46.5

4^th (7) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 49.57.4

5^th (4) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 50.12.4

6^th (5) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 51.53.0

7^th (26) Philip Morrow/Glenn Patterson (Lancer N) 52.39.7

8^th (15) Rory Galligan/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 52.57.9

9^th (24) Ryan Champion/Craig Thorley (Lancer N) 52.59.2

10^th (18) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 53.19.7

11^th Roy White 12^th Stephen Petch 13^th Craig Bennett 14^th David Higgins 15^th Colm Murphy 16^th Neil McCance 17^th Lorna Smith 18^th Alan Nesbitt 19^th Colin Greer 20^th Dougi Hall.

Mark Higgins turned on the style through stages 4, 5, 6 and 7 of this Jim Clark Rally, fastest on every stage.  On some of those stages it may not have been a lot quicker than his nearest opposition, mostly Derek McGarrity, but it all adds up.  Mark adjusted the differential settings on his Focus at the service after stage 3, made the car a bit more driver friendly and it certainly showed.  Mark did find that his brake pads were suffering some knock on effect but it didn’t seem to cost much time.  Tim McNulty found he was on slightly too hard a compound tyre for stage 7 particularly when the tyres had a chance to cool down between stages.        

Eugene Donnelly in 3^rd place overnight was going “average” according to his pretty fed up looking co driver Paul Kiely.  Eugene himself just shrugged his shoulders and said “Not too bad”.  He went on to tell us that the screen that they had got delivered from Glasgow, OK the actual screen was only £200, but the helicopter was £1500 an hour, didn’t fit – the screen was for a 4 door Corolla not a 3 door!  Gareth MacHale is now donating the screen from his stricken Corolla.

Derek McGarrity when asked how he was getting on said “Lucky to be here, there’s a front wheel bearing away”.  Eamonn Boland was standing rather sheepishly at the front of his crumpled Impreza, and when asked what happened said “A bit of a straight on at the bale up at the bridge on Langton, not a bother”  What Eamonn didn’t tell us that he was having a few problems with the brakes, but then most of the drivers seem to be in the same boat, its down to the nature of the stages.  Very long straights and then jumping on the brakes for square corners.

As Austin MacHale waited to go into the control his engineer Tom Gahan was revving away at the Focus WRC engine, studying the gauges and readouts very carefully. Austin explaining “The oil light started to flash, turned down the boost, the filter has maybe collapsed, should be 4 bars pressure and now she’s down to 2. The engine is due a rebuild anyway, same one as last year”. 

In Group N Philip Morrow is somehow or another holding on to his lead, Philip and co driver Glenn Patterson both in a lot of pain after yesterday’s accident. Their Lancer had a spin in stage 5 and also a puncture, and how they managed to get the wheel changed is a bit of a mystery. Fastest group N man on the stages at the minute is Rory Galligan, he is recovering fast from his 1^st stage puncture, co driver Greg Shinnors saying “We picked a hard compound tyre for this evening’s stages, and I am surprised at how well it paid off”. His team mate David Higgins isn’t going as well, David is driving his heart out but the times just are not coming. He is going to go back to a dog box, and also reckons the car could be down on turbo boost. Colm Murphy has really settled in over the last couple of stages, very much settled into the swing on his first visit to the Jim Clark Rally and is currently 15^th overall.  Ryan Champion has really moved into an extremely strong position in the Evo Challenge, Ryan is questioning just how hard should he go, he wants to finish, he is carrying more speed over the last few stages, and he doesn’t want anything silly to go wrong. Roy White is another gpN driver who has really got on to the pipe since his first stage puncture, but Roy has damaged his newly fitted brake discs and needs another 2 fitted at the front. At £400 a throw in what he terms “real money”, things are not easy! 

Alan Nesbitt was lying just outside the top 10 but he has dropped back his Impreza suffering fuel starvation. Aaron MacHale’s Lancer suffered a stage 4 puncture so he is out of the hunt. Lorna Smith spun her gpN Impreza in Abbey St Bathans and lost about 20s. Neil McCance was another who was going extremely well but his Lancer brake discs are gone also, he got a big scare on a 1 right into 2 right in stage 6 and his times fell right off. Rob Swann, 2^nd gpN on the Scottish Rally, has gone off song here today, really struggling on the tarmac stages and finishing every stage with his Impreza brake discs glowing white hot. Wrecking his confidence completely. James Edwards was also going well but his Lancer suffered a stage 4 puncture which quickly smashed the wheel and then damaged the suspension.