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| Manx International Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.8 - After Sservice 18 - Saturday @ 12:29:00 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.8 Grandstand/Douglas/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER SERVICE 18 (After Kella stage)
1st (2) Keith Cronin/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 1.49.35.9
2nd (1) Mark HIggins/Bryan Thomas (Impreza N) 1.49.41.3
3rd (3) Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 1.53.02.7
4th (4) Adam Gould/Sebastian Marshal (Impreza N) 1.53.07.6
5th (11) Steven Quine/Paul McCann (Lancer) 1.56.05.4
6th (7) Euan Thorburn/Campbell Roy (Impreza N) 1.56.59.3
7th (8) Dave Weston Jnr/Aled Davies (Impreza N) 1.58.23.8
8th (25) Marty McCormack/Phil Clarke (C2R2 Max) 1.59.05.1
9th (26) Jason Pritchard/Andrew Edwards (C2R2 Max) 1.59.53.3
10th (15) Tom Walster/Craig Parry (Clio) 2.00.21.8
It was all hell let loose at the Mark Higgins’ service point here at the Grandstand as the mechanics set about trying to change his Subaru gearbox in the allotted 20m. Mark started this morning’s leg with a 62s advantage over 2nd placed Keith Cronin, but that has been whittled down over each of the 4 stages in the loop as Mark struggled with redundant clutch pedal. The really tight hairpins in Glascoe affected Mark mostly, he lost 31s to Keith there. Even on the 4th stage of the loop, Kella, Keith was 15s faster. Mark was really surprised at that as apart from losing a couple of seconds off the start line he felt he had a good run. Cronin’s co driver Greg Shinnors smiled and said. “The Curraghs is kind to the West Cork man”. Greg, who has hurt his back on a compression dip jump also said. “Everything is working well, we will just keep at it”. Mark said. “I was surprised to lose so much in the Curaghs. Hopefully we will get the gearbox changed and do all we can this afternoon. We got stuck at those impossible hairpins in Glascoe and had to be pushed back and forward by the spectators”.
Further news from stages 15 and 16 is that Craig Breen has crashed his Fiesta at junction 2 in stage 16 and although his Fiesta is not badly damaged the engine will not re-start. Also reportedly stopped is Richard Sykes in the Suzuki.
The battle for 3rd and 4th overall is just as intense as the one for the lead with Alastair Fisher and Adam Gould in their respective Lancers on the limit. Fisher was worried about a little noise at the back of the car following the Glenroy water splash but that seemed to rectify itself. Alastair said here at service. “We had a good run over the last 2 stages it’s a fast pace”. Gould said. “The last stage was good for us, mega quick, but on the previous one we missed a few gears at junctions”. Steven Quine upholds Isle of Man honours in 4th place and he’s going to try changing the brakes and a couple of rims here at service as he is getting a vibration at the front of the car and a long brake pedal. He also has a sore eye as co driver Paul McCann poked him in the eye by accident with a time card. Euan Thorburn in 6th is pushing on hard but told us that towards the end of long stages, as the temperature gauge rise, the engine starts to misfire. He also ran wide on a corner, knocked a wheel and possibly deranged the steering.
Nigel Cannell in the Star Services Lancer is running in Super Rally and is almost last in the classification but is setting times equal to 7th or 8th overall. Similarly, David Bogie is well down the order, but has been setting decent times over the last few stages in the Evo X. Tom Walster will possibly now come into the top 10 and lead class R3 in his Clio from Andrew Leece in his Fiesta. Luke Pinder leads class R1 in his Suzuki and Marty McCormack has had a clean run over the last few stages to reinforce his class R2 lead and indeed his lead in the Citroen Racing Trophy. Marty’s closest pursuer Jason Pritchard stopped at Craig Breen’s accident to make sure he was OK so we do not have a time for Jason just yet.
LATEST NEWS: Mark Higgins’ gearbox was changed and it appeared that he would be on time but a last minute glitch when the exhaust was found to be still lying on the ground cost an extra few seconds and Mark adjudged 1m late at the out control. This leaves Keith Cronin now with a 5.4s lead heading out to the longest stage of the rally, the 21.38 mile Newtown test.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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