MANX TALES NO.9                Grandstand/Service/Saturday 10.45

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 19 Slieu Dhoo
1st (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 2.03.18.1
2nd (2) Kenny McKinstry/Noel Orr (Impreza WRC) 2.03.33.5
3rd (3) Derek McGarrity/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 2.04.12.1
4th (4) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 2.05.22.0
5th (11) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 2.07.13.2
6th (16) Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Ignis) 2.10.42.4
7th (17) Jonny Milner/Nick Beech (Lancer N) 2.11.35.7
8th (27) Roy White/Stephen McAuley (Lancer N) 2.12.31.2
9th (15) Gwyndaf Evans/Huw Lewis (Lancer N) 2.12.40.2
10th (24) Phillip Morrow/Daniel Barritt (Lancer N) 2.12.41.3
11th (25) Conrad Rautenbach/Dave Senior (Impreza N) 2.13.04.7
12th (6) Gareth Jones/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 2.13.15.8

This Rally Isle of Man is far from being a done deal.  Eugene Donnelly started this morning with a 29s lead and was over a second faster than McKinstry through the first stage out.  Then on the long 2nd stage, Slieu Dhoo, Donnelly admitted to being a bit conservative and all of a sudden McKinstry had taken 15s back to leave the gap now at just 15s and there are still 5 stages to go including the longest one of this long event.  Main stories this morning were that Guy Woodcock, having led his class since the start and been well into the top 20, has rolled his Escort Maxi in stage 18. Colm Murphy has lost a top 10 place when he went off the road in stage 18 and damaged the car.  Jimmy McRae was leading the Historics but decided not to re start has his Porsche 911 has an engine problem.  17 year old Norgwegian Andreas Mikkelsen has re-joined the fray, albeit running at the back in his Focus WRC under Super Rally rules.

When Eugene Donnelly arrived in here at the Grandstand service he told us. “We were conservative on that 2nd stage this morning, taking no chances, but I was still committed to the notes, it was still damp under the tress and the sun flashing through gets to me a bit.”  At that Kenny McKinstry arrived in and we heard his stage time.  Eugene’s chin dropped ever so slightly and he said “15s, the proof is in the pudding. I don’t know that stage very well and it has generally been the last stage of the rally for me so we wouldn’t have been trying too hard”.  It certainly gave Eugene something to think about but the Pirelli Tarmac Champion won’t take that lying down so it will be interesting to see the stage times to come.  When Kenny McKinstry climbed out of his Subaru he was sweating hard and told us. “Yes, I was trying certainly but really I think I was on the wrong rubber. I changed my mind 3 times this morning about which tyres. Dick Cormac produced the right Pirelli tyre for me but I didn’t use it. Still it worked out OK”.  Derek McGarrity was slightly slower than Donnelly and he said. “I was on full wet tyres, need I say any more?  I would have bet at the start of that last stage that I was on the right rubber but one mile in it was like somebody flicked a switch. It was just a totally different road.” 

Interestingly Gareth Jones was 2nd fastest overall through that stage 19. Gareth was late out of service as the engineers worked at his Subaru brakes. He’s trying to get the car absolutely right for Rally Germany next week.  However he said that the brakes were still not spot on which makes the stage time even more special.

Mark Higgins still has the upper hand in the group N category, Mark saying “I was being sensible on the first one out but everything is going well”.  Jonny Milner is 2nd group N now, Jonny said that his run this morning was nothing special that he wasn’t really confident. Similarly Roy White, 3rd group N, said he was being just too cautious.  Gwyndaf Evans on the other hand had a great run through the 2 stages. The Welshman has his new gearbox in now and he hopes to get a cracked brake disc changed here at service. David Wright had a spin at the hairpin on stage 18, and also caught Colm Murphy which together cost quite a few seconds but he has still set very good time this morning and is now 14th overall. Conrad Rautenbach also caught Murphy on the narrow bit of Druidale which cost him a few seconds. Colm told us that his accident happened on a long 3 left when the car just stepped out.  The front right hand corner is crunched but more worrying is damage to the rear suspension and the car was crabbing the whole way from Druidale through Slieu Dhoo costing the young Irishman dearly in terms of overall positions here on the Island and in the Pirelli Tarmac c/ship.  More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net