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| RALLY NEWS NO.8 TT Grandstand/Douglas/Friday UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 14 – END OF LEG 2 Today’s final loop of stages was cut from 3 to 2 because of a security problem up at Brandywell. Andreas Mikkelsen was fastest on those 2 stages, while Eugene Donnelly did more than enough to preserve his lead over Eamonn Boland, Eugene now has over 3 minutes in hand. Guy Wilks set 2 stunningly impressive times to maintain not just 3rd overall but his lead position in the Tesco 99 British Championship division. It is still very tight between Guy and Gwyndaf Evans, but Guy was just over 2s faster on one of the stages and half a second on the other. Eugene Donnelly commented here at the Grandstand service area. “Those were 2 nice stages, mostly good surface although we picked up a puncture just at the end of the second one possibly driving over shingle on the road. I’m very happy with the way the car was working today although if it turns wet tomorrow e may change the set up. I’d love to be racing Andreas, but I have to think of the championship. With Mark’s retirement it is still a straight fight between us, but its all ifs and buts of course, that’s what makes it more interesting. It is just a shame that Mark wasn’t competing on the Jim Clark in a world rally car, I wouldn’t like people to say it wasn’t a fair battle”. Andreas Mikkelsen said “We have no problems, the car is fine, we’ve been going quite fast not pushing too hard”. Guy Wilks said “We enjoyed a good start to the rally and then a few stages ago there was a knocking noise in the car and we nursed, that’s where Gwyndaf closed up. It turned out just to be a gearbox mounting, I was using the clutch and being as gentle as possible”. As regards the overall positions on the rally Guy also said “We can hold our own with Eamonn we’re just 14s back. If it is wet he should have the advantage with the world rally car”. Paul Bird in 5th place said. “We’re still struggling with the set, it was too soft and it has got worse. It its wet tomorrow it would be right”. David Higgins in 6th said. “We were on intermediate tyres and they went off. On the real twisty stuff the car is heavy because we have the front diff locked but we’re here”. That latter remark was partly referring to the fact that his brother Mark has retired from the main rally although he is going to rejoin under Super Rally rules and also his mother and father, Tony & Christine, have retired from their part of the rally, their Escort alternator crying enough. James Cullen in 8th is still struggling with the suspension but his times are miles better than they w4ere at the start of the rally. Conrad Rautenbach in 9th leads class 6 and is almost 2 minutes ahead of young Darren Gass. Rautenbach had a small difficulty with his Citroen pulling to the right over the last couple of stages. Robert Swann in 10th has had a noisy 5th gear in his GpN Impreza all day and the mechanics are going to change the gearbox here at service. PJ McDermott has recovered from his puncture and is up into 11th place ahead of Damon Harvey in his gpN Impreza. Oscar Svedlund is in 14th, the Swedish driver reporting an overshoot and going through the tape on stage 14, but otherwise it has been going well for him on his first visit to the Island and he commented. “It is very good learning for me, we have no tarmac rally in Sweden, we have to go abroad”. Lorna Smith continues to lead her class, her little Suzuki running like a Swiss watch, her only problem today bumping the front of the car on a square corner. Nigel & Michaela Cannell are up into 3rd in class behind the 2 Citroens of Rautenbach and Gass. Nigel is getting his confidence back following a big accident in February. In the Historic rally Richard Tuthill was leading from Gareth Lloyd, with Martin Freestone 3rd, Stephen Smith 4th and Adrian Kermode 5th just ahead of Frank Cunningham. Kermode lost a little time when a wheel came loose. |
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