RALLY NEWS NO.4 End of stage 5/Friday 11am

UNOFFICIAL LEADEREBOARD AFTER STAGE 5 LITTLE LONDON
1st (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 18.32.3
2nd (5) Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Focus WRC) 18.37.0
3rd (2) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 19.21.1
4th (7) Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Lancer N) 19.22.5
5th (8) Gwyndaf Evans/Huw Lewis (Lancer N) 19.27.5
6th (6) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 19.36.6
7th (3) Paul Bird/Andy Richardson (Impreza WRC) 19.41.1
8th (10) PJ McDermott/Sean Harris (Impreza WRC) 20.04.8
9th (9) David Higgins/Ieuan Thomas (Corolla S2000) 20.26.9
10th (24) Paul Curphey/Eunice Cubbon (Lancer N) 20.37.9

On the Little London stage it was Andreas Mikkelsen fastest by 5s from Eugene Donnelly while amongst the Tesco 99 British championship contenders it was Guy Wilks setting the pace, 2s up on Gwyndaf Evans and almost 4 up on Mark Higgins. It was all very close, the roads were dry and none of the lead drivers reported any major problems. Eugene Donnelly looked slightly preoccupied at stage finish, his co driver Paul Kiely saying “It went well, kept it safe, there’s a long way to go on this rally”. Eugene then said something about a light in the dash had flashed mid stage and had distracted him a little”. Andreas Mikkelsen’s co driver Ola Floene said. “We were middle of the road, 2 days to go, we don’t want a mistake”. Eamonn Boland reported no problems while Paul Bird looked slightly downcast, having had a spin at Sartfield hairpin which cost valuable seconds.

Mark Higgins seemed a bit happier with his car after the stage, Mark saying that they had adjusted the suspension since last night and it wasn’t bouncing about as much. Guy Wilks said that he found his Lancer a bit lively in places, skipping about, and he was having to settle the car with left foot braking. Gwyndaf Evans said “Wasn’t bad”. David Higgins in the new Toyota seemed unhappy, his time was quite a few seconds of the best group N pace and David said that the Corolla was pulling one way under power and then the other way under braking.

PJ McDermott had a spin in his Subaru. Oscar Svedlund in the Tommi Makinen built group N Impreza said “We are trying, still some problem with locking rear brakes”. Paddy White still has some suspension trouble with his Focus WRC while James Cullen again reported some mysterious transmission trouble with his Lancer, James admitting to feeling very uncomfortable in the car and having no confidence in the car whatsoever. Conrad Rautenbach and Darren Gass in their respective Citroen C2s are having a great battle, Darren 2s up on Conrad over that Little London stage and just edging ahead of the overall classification, both just outside the top 10. Darren said that he found the stage very bumpy in the little C2. Robert Swann had a pretty good time through the stage but he was unhappy with the tyre choice, changed to the spare tyres before the start of the stage and the jack snapped which made it a fraught start to his day.

Wyn Humphreys reported a noise in his GpN Impreza gearbox and Connor McCloskey reported his Lancer handling better today, Derek McGeehan having helped him with the set up of the new car.

News coming in from stage 6, St. Judes, is that Mikkelsen was a couple of seconds faster than Donnelly which should make the race more interesting. It would appear that Eugene is on too soft a rubber this morning….
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net

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