RALLY NEWS NO.7 End of Stage 13/Sunday 11.45

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAG 13 ECCLES 1
1st (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 1.28.49.7
2nd (3) Tim McNulty/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 1.30.26.7
3rd (2) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC 1.30.38.5
4th (6) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 1.32.27.4
5th (14) Gareth Jones/James O'Brien (Focus WRC) 1.34.29.0
6th (8) David Higgins/Ieuan Thomas (Corolla S2000R) 1.34.59.6
7th (18) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 1.35.37.4
8th (16) Phillip Morrow/Daniel Barritt (Lancer N) 1.36.47.6
9th (19) Roy White/Stephen McAuley (Lancer N) 1.37.14.2
10th (25) PJ McDermott/Sean Harris (Impreza WRC) 1.37.30.2

Streaming wet roads greeted the drives at the start of this day three on the Jim Clark Rally and Eugene Donnelly was fastest on the opening Eccles stage to maintain his lead. Mark Higgins was fastest group N to hold his position at the front of the Tesco 99 British C/ship contenders, Mark’s position even more secure with the news that Gwyndaf Evans’ Lancer stopped a couple of miles into stage 13. Tim McNulty’s Subaru suffered a puncture but only lost a few seconds, although it did allow Eamonn Boland to close the gap to 12s. Donnelly commented at stage finish. “There’s a lot more time to be had in there, yes, it was very wet but we got fantastic grip from the tyres and I was only driving at 50 per cent of their capability.” Eamonn Boland said. “It wasn’t so bad not as slippy as I thought it would be”. Tim McNulty changed his flat tyre after the stage stop line and he reported cutting a square right too tight and that was what sliced the tyre wall.

Mark Higgins set a scintillating time in his group N Subaru but also said “I was really careful”. (It must be the green leprechaun racing boots!) Despite retiring from the rally last night Guy Wilks rejoined the fray this morning under super rally rules and although he was reclassified in 19th position he was running at the back of the top 10 on safety grounds. However, it didn’t go well for Guy as a turbo pipe slipped off and he dropped about 40s to Mark Higgins. On a crackly phone line to competitor liaison lady Caroline Reid we got some explanation of the latest Super Rally rules. Guy gets restarted with a 10 minute penalty added to his time, the time allotted the fastest in the class which would have been Mark Higgins. Ironically Mark was actually fastest overall on stage 12 last night. The added twist to the Super Rally rules is that although Guy can finish quite well up if he has a good run, as regards the allocation of British Championship points, all the competitors who finish and are registered will get points and Guy will then get points that are left over.

Gareth Jones didn’t have a great time for the stage, the young Welshman saying “It was lethal in there great practice for the Monte Carlo Rally”. David Higgins said that his Toyota was aquaplaning quite a bit and the front of the car was tram lining in the streaming water. Colm Murphy commented about eh roads. “I was driving like Miss Daisy just holding on over the pools of water and clinching my backside!” Phillip Morrow had a pretty good time for the stage but his Lancer smelled of burnt oil at stage finish and indeed the oil light was flashing as well. Following the passage of about 10 cars young Cork driver Owen Murphy was then due, he was 11th overnight, but an ominous silence descended at stage finish and then news filtered through that Owen had crashed through a gate into a field.

Overnight class leaders included Darren Gass/Neil Shanks in their Citroen, they were 15th o/a and leading cl.6. Matte Beebe/Gareth Roberts were leading cl.3 in their MG. Lorna Smith/Joanne Oakey led class 2 in their Suzuki Swift Sport, their tea mate James Wozencroft 1m38s behind following their puncture yesterday. Andrew Stewart/Tony Gallagher led cl.5 in their MG. There were 40 cars restarted this morning. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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