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| Rally Isle of Man |
| RALLY NEWS No.2 - After SS2 - Friday @ 12:00:55 |
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MANX TAILS/RALLY NEWS NO.2 GRANDSTAND Friday Noon
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBORD AFTER STAGE 1 GOVERNORS
1st (4) Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 58.3
2nd (3) Gwyndaf Evans/Gareth Roberts (Lancer N) 59.1
(7) Dave Weston Jnr/Ieuan Thomas (Impreza N) 59.1
4th (14) Nigel & Michaela Cannell (Lancer N) 59.4
5th (9) Euan Thorburn/Paul Beaton (Lancer N) 1.00.6
6th (12) Daniel Sigurdarson/Asta S (Lancer N) 1.00.9
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2 DOGMILLS
1st (3) Gwyndaf Evans/Gareth Roberts (Lancer N) ****
2nd (2) Keith Cronin/Barry McNulty (Impreza N) 11.19.5
3rd (4) Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 11.22.2
4th (11) Adam Gould/Craig Drew (Impreza N) 11.26.6
5th (6) Jonny Greer/Gordon Noble (Lancer N) 11.47.7
6th (10) Jason Pritchard/Robbie Durant (Impreza N) 11.55.9
****The above leaderboard is unofficial and we do not have Gwyndaf’s actual time for the stage. He was reportedly 10s faster than Cronin through the stage.
The opening stage that started from the TT Grandstand and headed up a short section of the TT Course was shrouded in heavy sea mist following the overnight rain. The drivers mostly reported the surface greasy and treated it with caution. One driver who didn’t was Steve Graham who crashed into a kerb and knocked a wheel off his Astra. Alastair Fisher was fastest and led the rally.
Keith Cronin was first on the road and he said. “I just drove it. The tyres are cold. It is just a matter of getting through it”. Local driver Steven Quine reported. “We slid right across the road after the hairpin, very slippy”. Further stories from the first stage included: Jason Pritchard had intercom problems. Nigel Cannell said. “I was more nervous about that opening stage than I am about the whole rally. The car, touch wood, is going well”. Nigel has had his Lancer engine re-mapped 3 times this week. Mark Donnelly was the fastest of the Citroen Racing Trophy contenders and also the fastest in the class, by just a fraction from the two Twingos of Rantanen and Nikara.
In contrast to stage 1 the second stage above Ramsey was dry, which meant some drivers were caught on the wrong tyres. Included in this latter category was Alastair Fisher and also Steven Quine. Dave Weston Jnr had to stop in the stage to change a punctured wheel on his Impreza.
Unofficially we now have Gwyndaf Evans leading the rally although this has to be confirmed. Gwyndaf started to the event on dry weather tyres on the gamble that it was dry at the top of the island. The 2nd stage has now been stopped as Alan Cookson/Julian Wilkinson have crashed their Impreza. Alan is reported to be OK and co driver Julian has asked for a medical check over.
On WRC Rally Bulgaria after the 2nd stage Loeb leads from Ogier with Sordo 3rdand Petter Solberg 4th. Solberg was 2nd fastest to Loeb through stage 2. The weather there sounds pretty similar to here!
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Jo and Neil Burgess)
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