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| Pirelli International Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.9 - After S10 - Saturday @ 17:06:15 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.9 Carlisle Service/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 10 The Craggs
1st (1) Keith Cronin/Barry McNulty (Impreza N) 1.10.04.9
2nd (2) Gwyndaf Evans/Chris Patterson (Lancer N) 1.10.23.8
3rd (3) Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts (Fiesta S2000) 1.10.28.7
4th (8) Jonny Greer/Dai Roberts (Lancer N) 1.12.14.2
5th (10) Daniel Sigurdarson/Asta Siguroardottir (Lancer N) 1.12.57.1
6th (24) Owen Murphy/James O'Brien (Lancer N) 1.14.45.6
7th (12) Jason Pritchard/Robbie Durant (Impreza N) 1.15.12.5
8th (16) Jarkko Nikara/Jarno Ottman (Twingo) 1.15.48.6
9th (19) Elfyn Evans/Andrew Edwards (Fiesta ST) 1.17.39.6
10th (14) Alan Cookson/Julian Wilkinson (Impreza N) 1.17.43.0
Craig Breen was fastest through stage 10 by just over a second from Keith Cronin with Gwyndaf Evans the blink of an eye, 0.3 of a second behind Cronin’s Impreza. Just 2 stages remaining now and 23s covering the top 3 cars, so it is still too close to call who is going to come out on top of this Pirelli International Rally. There was heartbreak though for Dave Weston Jnr and his co driver Euan Thomas who were 4th o/a but have put their Impreza off the road towards the end of that Craggs stage. Alan Cookson/Julian Wilkinson now come into the top 10 in their Subaru with Max Utting & Adam Gould 11th and 12th.
The young Finnish crew of Mikko Pajunen/Janne Perala continue to make progress up the classification and as well as leading class R1 in their Swift are 13th o/a. Robert Barrable/Damien Connelly continues to lead the Citroen Racing Trophy contenders with Mark Donnelly, who celebrated his 19th birthday yesterday, making a huge charge to try and reel in Barrable. However it is an almost impossible task, Mark having lost 2m yesterday when a radiator hose fitting came adrift.
Meanwhile Mark Higgins returned from the stages after retiring this morning and told us that he did not have an accident in the Subaru but knocked a chunk out of a back wheel and got a puncture. Eventually the flapping tyre damaged a suspension link and he decided to pull the car in at the side of the road and call it a day. Mark said that to cap it all, his phone has stopped working! When asked if he would consider doing the Jim Clark Rally he switched into evasive mode.
In the Pirelli Tour of Cumbria Rally with 3 stages remaining Jonny Milner/Ian Windress in their Corolla WRC had a 1m lead over Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield (Impreza WRC). Stephen Petch/John Richardson were 3rd in their Accient WRC. Charlie Payne/Craig Thorley (Focus WRC) were 4th. Jonny said. “We’re going fine now, switched on to a harder compound tyre. We lost a few seconds in Roger Duckworth’s dust when he got the puncture but it was no big problem”. Roger’s co driver Mark Broomfield said. “We got the puncture at the start of stage 8 on the back left wheel and then we had a spin on a long left hander. The tyre eventually flew off the rim on a very fast downhill straight and when it flew off the car turned almost square left. But we got away it”. Stephen Petch reported that at one point the brakes were knackered and the tyres were kaput, but now he has everything sorted out. Charlie Payne’s co driver Craig Thorley said. “We still have the L plates on, getting used to the car, having fun. There is loads of grip and traction with this Focus and we are not used to that!” More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Andrew Kellitt)
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