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| Manx International Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.6 - After SS12 - Friday @ 21:01:53 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.6 Grandstand/Douglas/Friday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 12 – End of Day 1
1st (1) Mark HIggins/Bryan Thomas (Impreza N) 1.26.19.2
2nd (2) Keith Cronin/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 1.27.21.6
3rd (3) Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 1.30.08.1
4th (4) Adam Gould/Sebastian Marshal (Impreza N) 1.30.09.1
5th (11) Steven Quine/Paul McCann (Lancer) 1.32.01.9
6th (7) Euan Thorburn/Campbell Roy (Impreza N) 1.33.10.2
7th (8) Dave Weston Jnr/Aled Davies (Impreza N) 1.33.47.2
8th (15) Tom Walster/Craig Parry (Clio) 1.34.32.2
9th (25) Marty McCormack/Phil Clarke (C2R2 Max) 1.34.46.5
10th ((16) Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts (Fiesta) 1.34.51.5
Mark Higgins and his co driver Bryan Thomas in their Subaru Impreza have an overnight lead of just over a minute from Keith Cronin/Greg Shinnors in their Lancer. In modern day rallying a minute is a lot but at the same time there is a large slice of rallying still to come on this Isle of Man Rally and anything could happen before the Grandstand finish tomorrow. Keith Cronin’s co driver Greg Shinnors remarked when the Lancer came into service. “We certainly haven’t thrown the towel in. There is still a long way to go. We went well tonight but didn’t go nuts”. Mark Higgins seemed a bit upset when his Subaru came in and he said. “The centre diff has gone again about 4 miles from the end of the last stage. We don’t have a spare box but I think its probably an electrical fault. We had a nice run tonight and its good to have the minute overnight lead but we still have some niggly problems to sort out in service.”
The battle between Alastair Fisher and Adam Gould raged right down to the finish line of the last stage tonight. Gould was shaking with adrenalin surge when he came into the Grandstand service and said. “I’ve been driving flat out. We had a real clean stage all the lines were good.” Alastair said. “That’s as hard as I’ve ever driven and there was just one place where I braked early”. Steven Quine, the highest placed Manx driver, in 5th place said. “It’s a shame Nigel Cannell has retired. We were having a great battle. My car has gone better tonight, no problems.” Euan Thorburn rounds off the top 6 and he reported a cutting out problem with his Subaru that cost some time.
David Bogie is still running with the top cars although down the order following his earlier problem and he told us that they had changed the suspension which was better but they had also fitted a shift light that caused a misfire. David said. “It was my call to try, nothing to lose as we are now on a testing exercise but it did create some magic blue flames from the exhaust!”
Craig Breen succeeded in winning the maximum Fiesta points for his performance up to stage 8 and then through the following stages he was free of the Fiesta championship restraints and really speeded up and he said. “I’m getting back on to the pace I was on this morning. That last stage was awesome”. Andrew Leece is driving a Fiesta for the first time this weekend and he has gone really well, but said that he doesn’t have the correct springs to really get the suspension set up as he wants it. Rory Byrne was up to 13th o/a in his Lancer but has dropped back a little as he is having clutch trouble and he doesn’t know if the mechanics will be able to change it in time to keep him in the rally.
Marty McCormack fitted new pads to his Citroen C2R2 Max for tonight’s run and once he had them bedded in he went well but “didn’t go mad” to hold 9th o/a and lead the Citroen Racing Trophy from Jason Pritchard. Jason is having some wheel spin troubles and has changed the suspension and is having the differential setting checked to see if he can get to the root of the problem. Andrew Hockridge has retired his Citroen C2R2 Max when he sheared the wheel studs off but hopes to do Super Rally. Matt Edwards/Rob Fagg won the Challenge Rally in their Fiesta from Ross Forde/Gary McElhinney in their similar Ford.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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