RALLY NEWS NO.6
Hadrian’s Camp Service/Saturday 1.15
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 11
P-ZERO
1st (2) Mark
Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Focus WRC) 1.11.13.2
2nd (5) Paul
Bird/Ian Windress (Focus WRC) 1.11.13.4
3rd (4) Austin
MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.11.42.3
4th (14) Gareth
MacHale/Paul Nagle (Corolla WRC) 1.12.15.8
5th (9) Sebastian
Ling/Ian Allsop (Accent WRC) 1.12.31.8
6th (7) Steve
Perez/Neil Dashfield (Focus WRC) 1.12.42.9
7th (8) Tapio
Laukkanen/Harri Kaapro (Impreza N) 1.12.47.2
8th (1) David
Higgins/Daniel Barritt (Lancer N) 1.12.54.2
9th (16) Richard
Gower/Aled Davies (Accent WRC) 1.14.03.5
10th (3) Jonny
Milner/Nicky Beech (Corolla WRC) 1.14.41.0
It doesn’t get much closer
than this battle at the head of the rally, Mark Higgins leading
Paul Bird by just 0.2 of a second. Mark looked as if he was
streaking away to an invincible lead, but in stage 9 his Focus WRC
shot up an escape road. That should have been no problem but Mark
couldn’t find reverse and had to be pushed back by spectators. It
didn’t appear to cost a lot of time, but it was enough to let Paul
Bird into the lead, coincidentally Steve Perez setting a fastest
time, his Vodka Kick Focus WRC 0.4 of a second quicker than Bird’s
example.
In stage 10 Mark Higgins
exerted his authority all over again and pulverised the opposition
to move into a 4s lead ahead of Bird, but then Mark stalled the
car on the start line of the spectator stage, P-Zero. “Talk about
making life difficult for yourself” Mark joked here at service.
But it was a fairly forced laugh! Paul Bird’s attitude was that
yes, he would love to win the rally but there is no chance that he
can beat Mark in a straight fight.
Also in the wars was Mark’s
brother David, his Lancer stuck in 4th gear for most of
the 11.95 mile Chirdonhead stage, and also through the spectator
super special. David told us “We actually lost more time in the
spectator stage because there are so many tight corners you would
normally take in 1st and 2nd gear. The
problem now is the replacement box is a synchromesh one, not the
same as the rally dog box. As well as that it takes about 35
minutes to change and we only have a 20 minute service.” It
doesn’t seem to be a good rally for Lancer 4th gears.
Rory Galligan’s example was tuck in 4th last night and
he reportedly burned the clutch out as a consequence. Aaron
MacHale’s Lancer is also now stuck in 4th.
Through all these dramas Tapio
Laukkanen has moved into the group N lead, although his Subaru is
only 7s ahead of David Higgins, but it should make for an
interesting afternoon on the stages. Austin MacHale will also be
trying to make up for time lost in stage 10. He told us that his
Focus was in 5th gear approaching a crest when it slid
wide and careered down a ditch, bouncing off quite a few bits of
scenery before coming to a halt. Austin had to turn the car around
to get going the right way. He did manage fastest time in the
P-Zero stage, although that it will for little in the overall
scheme of things.
At least Austin managed to keep
going, Jon Ingram’s Focus WRC had a major accident in stage 9 and
held up following crews. Reports suggest that although shaken,
Jon and co driver Andrew Bargery are both OK. Gareth MacHale has
had a great run over the early stages this morning, but showed a
bit of caution through Chirdonhead when his Corolla WRC developed
a vibration, Gareth suspecting that it could be a damaged drive
shaft. Steve Perez also backed off in stage 10, following his
fastest time in stage 9, Steve smelt oil smoke in the car and it
would look as if there is possibly some sort of hydraulic oil
spraying over the engine causing the fumes and smoke. Steve’s co
driver Neil Dashfield was unfazed and told us “Steve was calling
me his dram boy this morning. He didn’t sleep well, kept having
these dreams where I was yelling at him “don’t cut don’t cut”!!!
Sebastian Ling has lit up over the last few stages. He told us
that he had changed the suspension settings, tried a different
compound tyre, the car was transformed and his confidence is
coming back rapidly. Jonny Milner’s Corolla suffered a stage 9
puncture, co driver Nicky Beech telling us “There was a rock on
line about 300 yards into the stage, couldn’t miss it, burst the
front right tyre and we battled through the stage on the flat tyre
until eventually it flew off. We think damaged or ripped a brake
pipe off. We then had to do all of stage 10 with just 3 brakes on
the car and lost a lot of time in there.” Richard Gower was
running behind Milner and his Accent’s windscreen got smashed when
he caught up with the struggling Corolla. Richard also had some
gear box troubles, 6th gear disappeared and then 1st
and 2nd, so his crew is going to try and change the
box. On the subject of gearboxes we are just getting news that
David Higgins’ gearbox was changed in just 25 minutes, somewhat of
a new record for a group N Lancer, and he is on his way to stage
12 Sheperdshield. More news later.
Behind the 24 cars still running in
the main rally the National Rally started this morning and Simon
Moore leads the main national although Gwyndaf Evans is shown at
the top of the times. Gwyndaf retired from the International rally
when his Fiesta had brake master cylinder problems yesterday. Tom
Curtis is 2nd to Moore with Chris Reid. James
Wozencroft & Rob Fagg lead the Stars of the Future in their Suzuki
from Neal Coalter’s Civic.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
www.rallynews.net
