RALLY NEWS NO.2               Hadrian’s Camp Service/Friday 8pm

 

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2 P-ZERO

1st (2) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Focus WRC) 3.59.9

2nd (4) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 4.01.9

3rd (1) David Higgins/Daniel Barritt (Lancer N) 4.03.5

4th (5) Paul Bird/Ian Windress (Focus WRC) 4.05.0

5th (3) Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Corolla WRC) 4.06.9

6th (9) Sebastian Ling/Ian Allsop (Accent WRC) 4.09.0

7th (11) Rory Galligan/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 4.10.4

8th (7) Steve Perez/Neil Dashfield (Focus WRC) 4.11.4

9th (10) Jon Ingram/Andrew Bargery (Focus WRC) 4.12.8

10th (8) Tapio Laukkanen/Harri Kaapro (Impreza N) 4.12.9

 

Rain greeted the drivers as they tackled the first stage of this Pirelli International Rally, the P-Zero Super Special just outside Carlisle.  First on the road, Mark Higgins, hit the water splash very hard and tore the rear bumper off his Focus WRC.  Mark said afterwards. “It must have been the rain but the water was much deeper than when we did the recce and we hit it very hard. The stage was quite slippy first time over, second time it wasn’t so bad.” Indeed Mark’s 2nd stage time of 1.59.7 is fastest so far. 

 

Second on the road Jonny Milner said. “We treated the opener with a bit of respect, the car is good, it’s a lot torquier than my old Corolla WRC, we can change gear a lot faster and we can short shift”.  Austin MacHale was 2nd fastest overall, the Dubliner saying. “We had a bit of an overshoot at a hairpin left and found it quite slippy, but overall it was good, the car feels great”. 

 

David Higgins was 3rd overall fastest and best of the Group N cars, David reporting a good run.  Tapio Laukkanen was further back, and said. “On this short stage you can’t really tell much. Yesterday I did about 15 miles in this car and it felt good. We will see now when we get into the forests, then it will be the real test.” 

 

Steve Perez in the Vodka Kick Focus WRC said after the stage “The windscreen misted up and I couldn’t see much. Drove it a bit gingerly”.  Still Steve was in the top 10. Sebastian Ling stalled his Accent WRC on the start line and thinks he lost at least half a dozen seconds, so his 6th place is all the more noteworthy.  Certainly the spectators loved the way the Accent hurtled through the stage.

 

Gwyndaf Evans reported after that opening stage. “Not a great stage for a Super 1600 car, its too slippy and the car is too nervous. As well as that I’m a bit rusty, we’ll see how we go later on. This is really a testing exercise”.  Gareth MacHale finished the test just outside the leaderboard, in 11th place, on a total of 4.14.0. The young Dubliner saying “I was cautious enough, it was lashing with rain on my first run. I’m looking forward to tonight’s stages in the real forests”.  

 

Further times just outside the leaderboard. John Lloyd 12th on 4.14.8 in his Subaru. Young Stephen Petch was 13th in a gpN Impreza on 4.19.0.  Barry Clark in another gpN Impreza was 4.19.5.  Aaron MacHale, with a new co driver this time in the shape of Mayo man Killian Duffy, 4.20.5 in his Lancer.

 

More news after stage 5. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net  

 

 

 

 

 

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TC