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| Pirelli International Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.1 - Pre Start - Friday @ 17:29:25 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.1 Carlisle Racecourse/Friday
This Pirelli International Rally, round 2 of the 2009 British Championship, promises an exciting battle at the top, with some brilliant young drivers matched against the two ‘benchmarks’, Guy Wilks and Mark Higgins. In addition there is the fascination of all the one make series, the Citroen Racing Trophy, the Fiesta Sporting Trophy, the Suzuki Cup and the Evo Challenge. Add in the various rallies running alongside the main International event, the Historics, the BRC Challenge, the Pirelli Tour of Cumbria (which encompasses the MSA ANCRO) as well as the Land Rovers, and an action packed rally weekend is definitely on the cards. The event has a new base this weekend here at Carlisle racecourse, the stages are all revamped, and the entry list certainly has a fresh look, with so many young drivers rising to the top of the ranks. One factor certainly remains constant and that is the challenge of the Kielder special stages – fast and mostly smooth, very exciting to drive, but with plenty of tricky places to catch a momentarily unwary driver or to punish a wild moment with a trip into a deep ditch.
Tonight’s two stages, Glen Dhu and The Valley, should set the pattern for the rally and it is going to be very interesting to see the times. One of the really unknown quantities will be the speed of the new Proton S2000 in the hands of Guy Wilks. Guy has won here, convincingly so, for the past two years, so if anyone can make this car perform, he’s the man. Last year here on the Pirelli Mark Higgins was certainly able to set some great times in an MG S2000, and the Proton is very similar. Former British Champion Mark is driving his tried and trusted Impreza N11 this time and he could be the key to the leaderboard scenario. Certainly, if Mark has a clean run, any driver who beats him will be going well. The driver who did just that on the opening round of the Championship in Wales, young Keith Cronin from West Cork, drove brilliantly through those Welsh forests, although he said he is going for a steady start here. As he prepared for the start Guy Wilks said. “We’ve done about 35 miles of a test and I’m quite happy. It’s difficult to know how we’ll compare. It’s a fast event. We will see where we stand, for now I will just get out there on to the stages, hope to have no problems, get on with it”.
Behind the top three is Adam Gould in one of the new Impreza N14’s. He was another to make an impressive start to the Championship in Wales. At 5 is Euan Thorburn the young man from Duns making an unfortunate start to the series when he crashed out in Wales. The car has been repaired however, and he and Claire Mole are ready to go again. Here’s hoping he puts that behind him, as he really is a promising young driver. That makes up the top six (there is no number 4 for some reason) and the rest of the top ten is made up of David Bogie, Dave Weston Jnr. and Phillip Morrow. Richard Cathcart was to be at No.10 but the young Ulsterman did not have a good day as his recce car sustained a puncture and then he got a phone call to say that his rally car had blown its engine. Daniel Sigurdarson comes in at 12, behind Andreas Sjolander. Former Icelandic Champion Sigurdarson in the JR Lancer replaces Stuart Jones. Sigurdarson has not driven the new car at all as yet, has not done this rally before. When it was suggested that he was in at the deep end Danny said. “I’m going to smile all the way through!” Happily there are no other significant changes at the top of the International entry list.
The Pirelli Tour of Cumbria is a fascinating event in its own right, with three world rally cars at the top to be driven by Marcus Dodd, Steve Perez and Paul Bird. Then it is Danny Barry at No.304 and Simon Hughes at 305, the front runners in the Evo Challenge. Further top Evo runners include Nik Elsmore, Owen Murphy and Alan Carmichael. The running order for tonight is that the Historic cars go first followed by the International then the BRC Challenge and then the Land Rovers. The Tour of Cumbria starts in the morning and runs from stage 3 to 10. The Challenge finishes after stage 6 and the Land Rovers finish after stage 10.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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