WEE MANX TALES NO.5       Saturday/Grandstand/11.30am

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 9 Reservoir

1^st (2) Mark Higgins/Andy Richardson (Focus WRC) 55.07.4

2^nd (11) Barry Johnson/Stuart Merry (Impreza WRC) 57.31.4

3^rd (5) Paul Bird/Ian Windress (Focus WRC) 57.33.9

4^th (8) Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield (Impreza WRC) 57.37.9

5^th (15) Brendan Crealey/Steve Harris (Focus WRC) 58.38.3

6^th (25) Ryan Champion/Craig Thorley (Lancer N) 58.53.4

7^th (10) Steve Fleck/Mark Aspinall (Impreza WRC) 59.12.0

8^th (9) Tony Davies/Jakes Kelly (Impreza WRC) 59.25.0

9^th (7) Steve Perez/Neil Dashfield (Focus WRC) 59.53.0

10^th (34) Robert Watson/Norman Quayle (Nova Kit) 59.54.9

 

It has certainly all been happening over the last few stages of this Roush Manx Rally with even the overall leader, Mark Higgins, crashing his Focus WRC off the road, but got going after a minute.  Those not so lucky included Mark Perrott, whose Escort WRC clutch cried enough at the start of stage 8. Just prior to that Mark had secured his Escort’s anti roll bar with his shoe laces, but to no avail! Last year’s winner Kenny McKinstry retired when his Subaru blew its engine.  Dom Buckley has crashed the Bobby King Porsche out of 10^th place, the accident happening at McRae’s jump in the Brandywell.  Kevin Stevens has crashed his Lancer which was lying 2^nd in Group N, Kevin blocked stage 8 Kella. 

 

Rally leader Higgins recounted his incident.  “Firstly we stalled off the line, same place as last night. There was an 18 minute delay at the stage start and the tyres had gone cold and the car was all over the place. On the downhill section at Injebreck, at the cattle grid, we went straight off the road at a 90 left and got stuck in the grass.  I pulled out in front of Barry Johnson so I know I lost about a minute.  I hope I didn’t hold Barry up. Luckily there seems to be no damage to the car”.  Barry Johnson related “Maybe we did lose a second or two initially, I was afraid of trying to get past Higgins where he went off, because it is so narrow, but I pulled those seconds back by sticking on his tail, got a tow, he’s very brave in his lines!”  Otherwise Johnson has had a good morning, although he is well behind Mark Higgins, over 2 minutes, he’s only a couple of seconds ahead of Paul Bird, who in turn is only a couple of seconds ahead of Duckworth and Crealey, so there’s a big race between these top crews.

 

Paul Bird said he had a great run over the Curraghs, really enjoyed the fast open roads. Roger Duckworth also had a clear run, although he mangled a chicken going over the Curraghs.  Brendan Crealey is really getting on the pace now and said. “The confidence is coming, I’ve started to lean on the car, and its great over the bumps and jumps which before were really worrying me.  I was using a soft slick tyre and they have worked well on the dry roads, although I’m not using the launch control as I’m afraid of breaking something off the start line. Overall I’m a lot happier”. 

 

Ryan Champion is now up to 6^th and continues to lead Group N, Ryan saying. “We were sensible over the first couple of stages this morning and then we pushed a bit harder. I should have been on slick tyres, but maybe at the same time it wouldn’t have been worth it. Some of the roads were still quite muddy”.  Steve Fleck in 7^th said “The grip is very patchy, there are places where it is dry but still no grip, and then there are patches of moisture under the trees”.  Tony Davies has started to charge, Tony saying “We stalled at the start line of stage 9 but otherwise its getting better all the time and I’m rearing to go over these next stages”.  Rob Watson in the giant killing Nova commented. “We have no problems, the car feels mega”. Current ANCRO Champion Steve Perez said. “We had a little off in the Curraghs, dropped maybe 10s, overall I’m still trying to learn to drive the Focus on asphalt”.   Steve is well down the points table for this year, Marcus Dodd and Paul Bird were joint leaders starting this event.  Marcus Dodd is 12^th following problems with his Accent’s alternator.

 

Just outside the leaderboard currently we have Phillip Morrow in 11^th and 2^nd Group N. Neil McCance is 13^th and 3^rd Group N.  Nik Elsmore 16^th and 4^th in the category.   Young David Wright is 14^th, David running his Group N Impreza with a big restrictor this weekend and is in class B13.  No times as yet for Stuart Jones, but we do hear he had 2 spins in stage 7, and is trying to adjust the suspension set up of his lancer to suit the tarmac.  In the Peugeot 206 Super Cup Jonnie Wigmore consolidated his lead over 18 year old Cork man Owen Murphy on the first 2 stages this morning.  More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net