UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2

1^st (4) Paul Bird/Ian Windress (Impreza WRC) 2.42.2

2^nd (6) Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield (Impreza WRC) 2.46.2

3^rd (1) Marcus Dodd/Andrew Bargery (Accent WRC) 2.49.1

4^th (7) Craig Middleton/Robin Hernaman (Accent WRC) 2.51.7

5^th (5) Steve Perez/Neil Dashfield (Focus WRC) 2.52.2

6^th (2) Barry Johnson/Stewart Merry (Impreza WRC) 2.53.3

7^th (9) Steve Fleck/Anthony Ettlinger (Impreza WRC) 2.53.6

8^th (12) Steve Hendy/Mark Milton (Escort WRC) 2.53.9

9^th (16) John Lloyd/Pauline Gullick (Impreza WRC) 2.56.3

10^th (8) Will Nicholls/Nick Broom (Impreza WRC) 2.56.3

11^th (21) Rob Smith/Alun Cook (Impreza N) 2.56.3

12^th (15) Ollie O'Donovan/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 2.58.2

It may be early days on this Rallye Sunseeker with just 3.2 miles, albeit dramatic, miles of stages so far, but already there is a huge battle shaping up between the top cars with Paul Bird looking very sharp on his first run in a Subaru.  There is a plethora of world rally machinery just seconds behind Bird’s Pirelli shod Subaru ready to pounce.  For some it wasn’t such a good evening.  Kenny McKinstry set a good time through the first of the two promenade stages, but his Impreza WRC ground to a halt amidst sickening graunching noises from the gearbox at the bridge just after the start of the stage. A broken step off gear is the suspected cause of the transmission failure.  Doesn’t really matter what it is – the car is out of the rally. 

By coincidence not a good night for another Northern Ireland driver – young Colin Britton. He fitted a new engine to his Peugeot 206 last week and the crank shaft would have appear to have broken at the end of the second promenade stage tonight.    Ironically, Colin is classified 3 from the end, but the car is going no further.

Paul Bird commented after his run this evening. “We were a bit slow off the line, otherwise it went well.”  Second placed Roger Duckworth said. “We were going hard, but I feel I was braking too early.”  Marcus Dodd reckoned he had a little bit of clutch slip with his Accent on the first stage, and on the 2^nd he lost a few seconds getting past McKinstry’s stricken Subaru and also got the 2^nd chicane slightly wrong.  Craig Middleton’s performance, to be 4^th overall, is pretty startling as he had rear brake troubles from the start, so he must have been trying very hard indeed. 

Steve Perez was a few seconds down after the first of the 2 stages, Steve reckoning his Focus WRC lights were vibrating and the light was bouncing back into the car, then the Vodka Kick man commented after the 2^nd stage. “I always seem to have problems on this stage, I’ve never had a good run”.  Barry Johnson in 5^th place slowed right down at McKinstry’s incident, in fact was waved down, and reckons he lost a handful of seconds. Steve Fleck set almost identical times through the 2 stages and said after the 2^nd. “That’s as brave as I’m going to get”. 

Steve Hendy had a good run but was knocked out of his stride ever so slightly as he couldn’t get his driver side window closed, and there was a very cold howling gale blasting into his Escort WRC. John Lloyd had a good run to 9^th overall and Will Nicholls was pretty impressive to bring his newly acquired Impreza into 10^th place.

Some class leaders after the first 2 stages include – Rob Smith who leads group N in his Subaru from Alistair Tough, also in a Subaru, with Martin Newcombe 3^rd in his Lancer. Interestingly Geoff Jones was 4^th in group N and 17^th overall in the new clubman specification Impreza. Geoff said that he was really impressed and surprised at how good the car is. He’s done a little adjustment to the Proflex suspension, and said that the new PIAA special lamp pod and lights worked a dream down the promenade, and overall the car felt like a real good package.

Neil Weaver turned in a stunning performance in his 1400 Corsa to lead his class and hold 27^th overall.  Emma McKinstry is leading lady and 28^th overall.  Jason Pritchard leads cl.A6 in his Peugeot 106 Maxi.  While Geoff Bennett led cl.B11 in his Escort. Martin England led cl.B10 in his Peugeot 206. James Wesley led cl.A5 in his MG ZR.  

Further stories include – Ollie O’Donovan had a good run to hold 12^th overall but his Subaru seems to be smoking quite a bit from the engine and Ollie reckons the power band seems a bit flat. Richard Gower in the zebra striped Accent said he had a bit of smoke from the engine at the end of the 2^nd stage. Jonathan Sparks was running very late on the road in his Lancer following a sticking throttle problem.

More news after stage 5. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net