MANX
TALES NO.2 Grandstand Service/Friday 9.45pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4 Begoade
1st (1) Kenny McKinstry/Noel Orr (Impreza WRC) 34.13.6
2nd (108) Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 34.23.3
3rd (3) Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield (Impreza WRC) 34.31.4
4th (4) Paul Bird/Ian Windress (Impreza WRC) 35.02.0
5th (6) Marcus Dodd/Andrew Bargery (Accent WRC) 35.10.7
6th (14) Jon Ingram/Ian Allsop (Focus WRC) 36.04.3
7th (19) Mark Jasper/Don Whyatt (Metro 6R4) 36.10.1
8th (5) Tony Davies/Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) 36.15.6
9th (11) Steve Hendy/Aled Davies (Escort WRC) 36.27.9
10th (7) Steve Fleck/Tony Ettlinger (Impreza WRC) 36.37.1
11th (16) David Kynaston/Andy Russell (Audi A3) 36.40.2
12th (20) Alistair Tough/Alistair Mackay (Impreza N) 37.14.0
Kenny McKinstry and Melvyn
Evans in their respective Subarus had a rare old battle over tonight’s
stages with just seconds separating them most of the way. Welshman
Evans leading initially and then Kenny edging ahead on the long
3rd stage, Milerisk. Interesting fastest overall on that stage was
Roger Duckworth, although by just 0.2 of a second. McKinstry felt
he went really well on the opening stage at Port Erin, but it wasn’t
reflected by the stop watch and Kenny is gong to query that. Then
at the start of the 2nd stage the Banbridge man was caught out slightly
when the starting lights didn’t seem to be in sequence and
he cooked the clutch slightly. Anyway, apart from that he had a
good run and revelled in the bone dry roads and high speeds here
on the fabulous Manx roads.
Melvyn Evans experienced
a bit of confusion at the start of stage 3 with the lights, and
he reckons he lost a few seconds there. Roger Duckworth lost time
in stage 4 when he whacked the side of his Impreza against the bank
on a square left corner. Then the front windscreen started to mist
up, all costing a few seconds. An early retirement was Steve Perez/Scott
Martin, their Vodka Kick backed Focus getting out of sequence at
a very fast left right over bumps about 2 miles from the end of
stage 3. The Focus seemed to kick out some way and the front of
it plunged into a bank. Happily there were no injuries. One of the
first drivers along was Marcus Dodd in his Hyundai. Marcus was waved
down by some bystanders, then saw the OK board, but then saw Perez
still in the car which he thought was a bit odd, as it was a 5th/6th
gear section. Anyway, Marcus thought the best thing to do was to
keep gong flat out to the stage finish and there he learned that
Perez was indeed out of the car and there were no injuries.
Paul Bird is holding
on grimly to 4th place, Paul not happy at all with the handling
of his hired Subaru and said himself that he is “struggling
to adapt”. He went on to say that it seems to be bouncing
all over the place and he is finding it real scary. Hopefully the
mechanics can sort it out for tomorrow morning, Bird reckoning that
perhaps if the car was lowered and stiffened it would help.
Young Matthew Wilson
was an interested spectator here at service and saw Jon Ingram bring
his Ford Focus into the control holding 6th place. Ingram said.
“It is my first rally here on the Isle of Man, it seems to
be going OK but we lost time in stage 4 when the screen misted up
after the ford”. Tony Davies was pretty surprised to be in
8th place, his Subaru in all sorts of gearbox troubles when firstly
it lost 3rd gear and then the paddle shift started to give trouble
and Tony felt he was going to wreck the gearbox, so he changed to
the manual change and was having to double shift all the time, still
without 3rd gear. Steve Fleck has been having clutch problems since
the 2nd stage and was lucky to stay in the top 10. Steve Hendy has
had a misfire with his Escort WRC since the first stage, their engineer
Dennis Moody has changed all sorts of sensors but the engine just
won’t run well at all. John Price is outside the top 10, back
in 14th place, his Metro 6R4 suffering brake troubles from stage
2, something John has never experienced before in all his years
of rallying Metro 6R4s.
Mark Jasper has been
going well in his Metro 6R4, up into 7th place, and caught and passed
John Bogie in a similar 6R4 in stage 3 and promptly crashed into
a telegraph pole at stage finish. He was able to keep going having
lost little time. For his part John Bogie said. “It’s
my first time here and it shows, I’m driving absolutely terrible,
trying to learn.” Richard Gower in the Hyundai said. “Glad
to be here, we got the turbo changed after stage 1 but I’m
going too slowly”. Alistair Tough continues to lead group
N and said. “I’m taking no risks, yes, we have a good
lead in group N, we have knocked a drive shaft coupling but should
be able to get it fixed here” Conrad Rautenbach is driving
a brand new Impreza N12 but was slowed through stages 2 and 3 by
a badly warped brake disc. Anthony Wilmington is showing as 2nd
group N, Rautenbach 3rd. No times as yet for young Stephen Petch
who was driving an absolutely brand new Lancer this evening. Rob
Watson was slowed with brake troubles in his Nova, was able to bleed
the front brakes and flew through stages 3 and 4 to lie 13th overall
and lead his class. More news in the morning. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
www.rallynews.net
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