MANX TALES NO.7                Grandstand/Friday 5.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 15 Baldhoon

1st (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.23.45.9
2nd (2) Kenny McKinstry/Noel Orr (Impreza WRC) 1.23.54.7
3rd (3) Derek McGarrity/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 1.24.08.9
4th (4) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 1.25.11.6
5th (11) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 1.26.50.2
6th (14) Ryan Champion/Craig Thorley (Lancer N) 1.28.48.0
7th (16) Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Ignis) 1.28.53.7
8th (18) Seamus Leonard/Gerry McVeigh (Lancer N) 1.29.07.2
9th (17) Jonny Milner/Nick Beech (Lancer N) 1.29.30.7
10th (27) Roy White/Stephen McAuley (Lancer N) 1.30.21.0
11th (24) Phillip Morrow/Daniel Barritt (Lancer N) 1.30.32.7
12th (25) Conrad Rautenbach/Dave Senior (Impreza N) 1.30.41.5

Eugene Donnelly and Kenny McKinstry continued with their massive battle through stages 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 since the last service. On average Eugene has been a second or two faster here and there, while Kenny has had the edge in a few places, but very little to choose between them. Donnelly commented here at service. “There were places it was quite wet on that loop and I loved ducking and diving round the puddles. It’s a great battle”.  Kenny McKinstry said “On Little London Eugene took 3s off us up to the cottage and we pulled that back to .8 on the narrow fast section over Druidale, but then in stage 12 I fried the clutch on the start line and we dropped 8s. We had a good run through the Ramsay stages and that last one, Baldhoon, went well. But its scary to get the tyres right, you’re never on the right rubber in these conditions, the tyres have such a small window.  It used to be just a soft or a hard tyre.  Now there’s such a selection and then on shiny tar it doesn’t matter what you have on. The weather looks like its closing in, these next 2 stages will be difficult, just have to go for it”. 

Derek McGarrity in 3rd place echoed some of McKinstry’s thoughts when he said “Tyre choice is just a lottery, its very slippy and of course I lost time on one of the Ramsay stages when I stalled the engine”.   Eamonn Boland stayed solidly in 4th despite his small time loss earlier in Cringle.

Mark Higgins had another good run to maintain 5th place and lead group N, but the group N picture changed somewhat when Rory Galligan had the bad luck to roll his car in stage 12, Rye Hill.  Rory’s team mate Ryan Champion said the accident seemed to happen on a fast section towards the end, part of the Grenaby road past the farm where there is a left hander which is tighter than the previous corners and that looks as if it has caught Rory out. Fortunately Rory and co driver Greg Shinnors are both OK.  Ryan reckoned he was on the wrong tyres for that run but still holds on to 2nd group N and Seamus Leonard has come up into 3rd in the category.  Leonard said that he has damaged every corner of his Lancer and the roads aren’t wide enough for him. However, on the bright side he now has the car’s suspension sorted and is happy with his progress. 

Roy White has now dropped behind Jonny Milner, Roy picking dry weather slick tyres for the FESP Lancer and it was the wrong choice. Lady luck on the other hand was shining on Milner when he had a big moment on a square right in Glenroy, went up on 2 wheels, Italian job style, damaged a rim but lost no time. David Wright on the other hand slithered wide through the ford in Baldhoon, that’s in Glenroy, and damaged a rear suspension arm and had to crab through the rest of the stage losing a minute and dropping out of 10th place down to 15th. Phillip Morrow had a good run through those stages to come up into 11th o/a and 6th group N.  Phillip feeling slightly insecure on stages that he doesn’t know but then the only way to get experience of them is to do them at high speed. 

Gareth Jones lost 3 minutes when he clipped a small stone and punctured a front left tyre in Little London. Gwyndaf Evans now has his Lancer suspension sorted but 5th gear is very noise so he’s just not using it. Gwyndaf is in 17th place having lost all that time on the first night. Guy Woodcock is 18th, still leading his class but his Escort Maxi is scrabbling for grip in these wet and slippy conditions. Guy Wilks ha a massive moment on the way down the Druiddale section of Little London, his Suzuki kicked over a big compression dip and went slithering down the grass, Guy doing a fantastic job to reverse flick it back on the road and only lost about 30s.  That was despite being on the wrong tyres for the stage. Stories from earlier included – Justin Dale retired with a mechanical problem.

Adrian Kermode/Maurice Beckett had no sooner taken over the lead of the Historics when the engine on their Porsche blew and they were out of the rally. This left Gareth Lloyd and Jimmy McRae battling for the lead. Karl Simmons crashed his Impreza S10 out of the rally before lunch.  Nigel & Michaela Cannell have started to go well now after discovering the front hub on their Corsa was cracked and that was what was causing the wayward handling. Andrew Barnes retired his Impreza from the Jim Clark Rally when it went on fire, and this morning one of the manifolds went on fire but this time they were able to keep going. Paddy White lost a mountain of time in stage 10 when his Impreza WRC lost all power.

Jeremy Taylor & Jody Patterson clipped a square left square right kerb near the start of the Union Mills stage and then overshot a hairpin which has been their only blip on a so far faultless run. Barry Clark had to drive with his line of vision completely impaired when a pheasant crashed into the screen in front of him. Barry also had power steering problems which didn’t help his cause.

More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net