RALLY NEWS NO.1
Saturday/Dogellau/12.30
On past form No.1 seed on this
International Rally of Wales, Mark Higgins in his Focus WRC,
should be the man to beat. Mark however is playing down his
chances saying that although he won the rally 5 years ago, he is
not familiar with the stages at all, remembers little about them,
and has had no big test in the car. However, for our money he’s
still the benchmark. Behind Mark is Austin MacHale at No.2, also
in a Focus WRC, Austin fresh from winning BRC Live. The Dubliner
didn’t seem in the best of form this morning, 3 punctures
yesterday curtailing his recce somewhat. At No.3 is young Matthew
Wilson, he is driving Paul Bird’s Focus this time, as his own car
is on it’s way to the world championship rally in Sardinia next
weekend. Matthew doesn’t see that as a problem, saying that the
cars are all built more or less to the same standard.
Behind the Focus spearhead current
Pirelli British Rally Champion, David Higgins at No.4, is in the
new Lancer. David pronouncing himself delighted with the car, and
saying about the stages. “Its one of those rallies where there are
lots of different surfaces; it would be easy to get sucked in.
Under the trees and where there is logging it can get very slippy
and muddy. In a way it’s the same old Wales, easy to get
complacent, but there are big rocks at the sides and punctures
could play a big part. Overall the stages are good. The recce
went well, we had some notes from previous years, but I haven’t
used any notes more than two years old. I’m really looking forward
to it, but it is very fast in places, and of course the Group N
car has a massive top speed. Daniel, my co-driver, joked that at
the hairpin in Gartheniog, before the ski run, he’ll get out and
see me at the end of the stage. Its that fast in there!”
David’s team mate Rory
Galligan said. “I’m really looking forward to it, classic stages,
now I just want to get going!” Starting at No.5 is Sebastian
Ling in a Steve Petch Accent WRC, Ling reporting all well since
his 2nd place on the Astra Stages. Jon Ingram at No.6
won the Astra rally in his Focus WRC and he is looking forward to
the rally. His co driver Shaun O’Gorman told us. “We’ll have no
heroics early on, take it steady for the first few stages, and
then see where we’re placed. We’re hopeful of a good result here.”
Gareth MacHale and co-driver Paul
Nagle are at No.7 and on their first visit to the Welsh forests.
Gareth is leading the Irish Forestry championship after 3 outright
wins, but this will be a new ball game for him here in Wales.
Certainly his Corolla WRC may be a bit long in the tooth, but its
still a great rally car. Justin Dale was to start at No.9, but his
car is not ready, so Tony Davies is next up at No.10 in his Subaru
Impreza WRC. Tony doesn’t have much gravel experience so he could
be on a learning curve.
Paul Wedgbury at No.11, with Gemma
Price on the notes, has a brand new Group N Impreza. Paul is well
pleased with his new car, and is hoping for a good run. Then its
Iwan Rees, also in a GpN Impreza. Stuart Jones at 14 is driving is
Lancer Evo7 and Richard Gower is at 15 in a second Steve Petch
Hyundai Accent WRC. John Lloyd is at No.16 in his Impreza WRC.
Then its Robert Swann in another Subaru, James Edwards in a
Lancers, Barry Clark in an Impreza and Aaron MacHale makes up the
top 10 in his Lancer Evo 8, to make it 3 MacHale’s in the event –
which must be fairly unique!
Drivers from outside the British
Isles include Jan Soderberg at 23 in a Lancer . Conrad Rautenbach
in a new Citroen C2 at No.27. Anders Fredricsson at No.30 in a
Renault Clio Ragnotti. There are 34 cars in the International
Rally. Followed by the Panaround Rally, including the Stars of the
Future and then the Land Rover Rally comprising mainly of the Lex
Army Rally Team driving new model Land Rovers that should be a lot
faster than last year’s machines. The Panaround event runs today
only. Tomorrow it’s the Gwynedd Rally running behind the main
field, the Land Rovers do both days.
Finally for now looking outside this
International Rally of Wales Martin Rowe with Rory Kennedy on the
pace notes, is leading the Rally Langyou in China by over 2
minutes from Ed Ordnsky. Martin was of course the winner here in
1998 and then went on to become the Group N World Champion in
2003. Rory says it is velly wet in China – no such problems here
in Wales, conditions look good.
More news later. BRIAN &
LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
