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| RALLY NEWS NO.11 TT Grandstand/Saturday 4pm UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 21 – FINAL STAGE The fabulous Brandywell Classic stage finishing past the TT Grandstand was a fitting finale to this Rally Isle of Man with Eugene Donnelly powering his Subaru down the final straight a stirring sight. For Eugene and co driver Paul Kiely this was their 2nd Manx victory, their winning margin this time over Eamonn Boland over 4 minutes. Guy Wilks drove a brilliant rally to finish 3rd o/a in his GpN Lancer to take maximum Tesco 99 British Championship points. Eugene Donnelly moves into the lead of the Tarmac Championship with this victory while Wyn Humphreys moves to the top of the BRC points. Mark Higgins had led both championships before the rally but an accident yesterday sidelined Mark to the Super Rally and although he put up a great show today he was really up against it as regards picking up points. There was a huge battle towards the end between Andreas Mikkelsen and Paul Bird for 4th and 5th places, Paul Bird finishing just ahead but Andreas Mikkelsen earned everybody’s admiration with some fantastic stage times over the 3 days. James Cullen finished 7th o/a and took maximum points in the Tarmac C/ship. Eugene Donnelly’s Reid Motorsport Subaru finished the rally with a smashed screen and Eugene said. “The bird came straight out of a hedge it was like an explosion when it hit the windscreen and it will be the price of Fort Knox to fix the damage. It was great to match stage times with Andreas, he’s a fantastic talent.” As we said earlier this was Eugene’s 2nd Manx win which is pretty special and he went on to say. “As always it was a brilliant rally a great mixture of stages, Paul my co driver, Prodrive and the whole team did a great job for me”. Eamonn Boland said. “It took me a while to get back into it but then it went really well”. Guy Wilks said. “It wasn’t all plain sailing, we had the gearbox mounting problem but then I think we managed ourselves well, I’m happy now”. Paul Bird reported. “We were on the door handles, couldn’t go any faster, we had an overshoot on the previous stage so I was delighted to go so well on the last stage and stay ahead of Mikkelsen”. Norwegian driver Andreas Mikkelsen remarked “We went flat out at the end, it was great, I enjoyed everything on the rally and I see a lot of things now I can work on for the next event”. There was a great battle between Wyn Humphreys and Robert Swann over the last few stages, in fact for most of the rally and Humphreys got ahead by just 0.6 of a second and the bonus for him was of course moving to the top of the BRC points. Just outside the above top 12 Connor McCloskey brought his Lancer into 13th. Andreas Sjolander was 14th and won cl.3 in his Fiesta. Matt Beebe was 15th in his MG. David Higgins did indeed retire his Corolla S2000 at service after stage 19. Lorna Smith has brought her Suzuki Swift into 17th o/a and wins cl.N2. Richard Tuthill has won the Historic Rally from Gareth Lloyd with David Stokes 3rd. While in the Trophy Rally with 2 stages still to go Rob Watson was in front from George Collister with Davie Corris 3rd. Looking outside the Isle of Man briefly Marcus Dodd was leading Swansea Bay with 1 stages to go, Steve Perez was 2nd and Andy Burton 3rd. Jonny Greer won the Fiesta Sporting Trophy from Adam Gould with Alastair Fisher 3rd. Finally for now very many thanks to all who helped and supported the Rally News service and well done to Richard & Anona Bargery plus all the team for a great rally. Our thanks as well to Chris Boyde. |
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