RALLY NEWS NO.1 Grandstand/Douglas/Thursday afternoon

Unpredictable game this rallying. Early in the season it was Eugene Donnelly and Guy Wilks setting the dazzling stage times, Eugene on the Tarmac Championship, Guy Wilks on the Tesco 99 British series. Here we are on the Rally Isle of Man, a common round to both contests, and Mark Higgins is leading the pair of them. The twist to the situation is that Mark drives a GpN Subaru here, in keeping with the British Championship rules, whereas Eugene Donnelly will be steering his mighty Impreza WRC S12. Higgins is of course on home ground here on the Island so could pull something extra special out of the bag. Donnelly is last year’s winner, so he should be no slouch either. However, neither driver will get it easy. Guy Wilks and Gwyndaf Evans will doubtless be flat out in their Lancers to redress the balance, with drivers like Eamonn Boland and Andreas Mikkelsen hounding Donnelly in the quest for Tarmac points. It is just a pity that some of the top Tarmac contenders are absent. Still, there’s a strong line up, and as ever the Manx will be a long tough rally, with possible changeable weather conditions making life, and tyre choice, difficult for all the drivers.

Donnelly heads the International entry and his Reid Motorsport Subaru was put through a full test routine last weekend in the Glens of Antrim. Eugene described it as a very worthwhile exercise. Eamonn Boland at 2 is in his Focus WRC and the Wexford man is keen to make up for some disappointments this season. Paul Bird at 3 is always flamboyant on the Manx stages, the Penrith man well capable of pulling off a surprise result. Kevin Lynch was to be next, but he has withdrawn because of pressure of work, so at No.5 is the brilliant Norwegian teenager Andreas Mikkelsen. He seems to be getting quicker by the rally, and although occasionally he skids his Focus WRC off the road, an International win can’t be far away.

Mark Higgins is at 6 in his Motorsport Insurance Services backed GpN Impreza, and if nothing else Mark has the support of his family here on the rally – his mother and father Tony and Christine are competing on the National part of the rally, and his brother David drives the new Toyota S2000 in the main rally, running at 9. David is still finalising the Proflex suspension set up in the new car, which he finds twitchy on its 18 inch tyres. Guy Wilks is at 7 in the ‘works’ Lancer, with his team-mate Gwyndaf Evans one place back. Both drivers have demonstrated massive pace this season, but various gremlins have held them back in the points table. Donegal man P.J McDermott in his Impreza WRC rounds off the top ten.

Just outside that top ten is a selection of top drivers in GpN cars including World Championship competitor Oscar Svedlund from Sweden. Svedlund is dipping his toe in the Manx waters to get some idea of what the asphalt roads will be like here and it will be very interesting indeed to see his pace. Kevin O’Donoghue starts at No.19 in his Lancer, the Killarney man lying 2nd in the Tarmac series Group N category. His mechanics were having a battle before the start to clear the fuel lines in the car as there was some contaminated fuel put in before they left Ireland. Kevin has eve4ry chance to moving to the top of the group N Tarmac points as Colm Murphy has withdrawn. James Cullen is at 18 in the Red Motorsport Lancer and reports all well. While Connor McCloskey down at 23 has a brand new Lancer for this event but has had no chance to test it. Navan’s Paddy White is running at 16 in his Focus WRC, Paddy fresh from winning the ALMC stages event and much happier with his Ford since it has been back to M-Sport to have the steering rack ref-fettled.

Further down the list is Conrad Rautenbach in his Citroen C2, Conrad fresh from winning the Zimbabwe Rally which clinched the Africa Championship. Conrad runs in class A6, as does young Ulsterman Darren Gass, also in a Citroen. Just some of the other A6 contenders include Adrian McElhinney from Donegal in his Peugeot and local crew Nigel and Michaela Cannell in their Corsa. Stefan Davis drives an A6 Puma, Japanese driver Kazutomo is in an A6 Citroen. Ladies Champion Lorna Smith drives her ‘works’ Suzuki and along with her team mate James Wozencroft should be the principle contenders in class N2. Another lady driver in the rally is young Toni Kelly from Donegal and she pronounced her new Civic Type R as “mint” following last night’s test stage at Onchan. The newly introduced test stage was popular with the competitors. Most had 2 or 3 runs over whereas Andreas Mikkelsen had about 8 runs and also gave the newly engaged Jo Holland from Motorsport News a quick trip over the stage. Jo and her boyfriend Neil Burgess came to the Island early for a brief holiday when Neil popped the question!

Main changes to the International field are the withdrawals of Kevin Lynch, Colm Murphy, Noel McCarrick, Jamie Hickman and Tom Gormally.

Additional interest this weekend will come from the Trophy part of the rally, where Rob Watson is the No.1 seed in his Nova. David Stokes tops the Historic list in his Escort ahead of a posse of Porsches driven by Steven Smith, Adrian Kermode and Richard Tuthill. Kermode is driving an ex Rothmans 911 and runs in the Classic section along with young Martin McCormack in his Escort. Then there is ‘the Stars’ category with Mark Gamble in his C2 at the top of the list. One well known face absent from the Historics is Jimmy McRae – Jimmy was to have driven a Porsche but the deal hasn’t come together. More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON HYPERLINK "http://www.rallynews.net" www.rallynews.net

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