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| Rally Isle of Man |
| RALLY NEWS No.3 - After SS3 - Friday @ 13:15:05 |
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MANX TAILS/RALLY NEWS NO.3 Grandstand Friday 13.15
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 3
1st (3) Gwyndaf Evans/Gareth Roberts (Lancer N) 15.28.9
2nd (2) Keith Cronin/Barry McNulty (Impreza N) 15.45.0
3rd (4) Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 15.54.7
4th (11) Adam Gould/Craig Drew (Impreza N) 15.59.1
5th (6) Jonny Greer/Gordon Noble (Lancer N) 16.26.7
6th (10) Jason Pritchard/Robbie Durant (Impreza N) 16.34.6
7th (14) Nigel & Michaela Cannell (Lancer N) 16.38.7
8th (8) Steven Quine/Richard Skinner (Lancer N) 16.48.2
9th (9) Euan Thorburn/Paul Beaton (Lancer N) 17.01.8
10th (12) Daniel Sigurdarson/Asta S (Lancer N) 17.02.2
Following Alastair Fisher’s fastest time on the short opening stage at Douglas Gwyndaf Evans was fastest through stages 2 and 3. In stage 2 Gwyndaf was quite a bit faster than anyone else. He was 10s up on Keith Cronin and 16s on Alastair Fisher. Stage 3 was a lot shorter, just 5 miles over Druidale, and Gwyndaf was 2s faster than Cronin. When the cars reached service Gwyndaf told us. “We went reasonably strong through stage 2. I could have gone harder but I was conscious that last year we were losing the brakes on the long stages and I was being a bit careful, but to be fair we had no trouble this time. In stage 3 we hit a big compression jump and knocked the alignment out at the back of the car. Hopefully we can get that sorted here at service and we also need a few clicks on the dampers”.
Keith Cronin also wanted some adjustments to the suspension on his Pirelli Impreza. Alastair Fisher was ruing having picked wet weather tyres when the roads were bone dry at the top of the island. Adam Gould in 4th told us that his older model Impreza seems to be suffering from a misfire out of tight junctions, which has cost time. On the up hill drag away from Brandywell Cottage he lost a lot of momentum. Jonny Greer in 4th reported no problems. While Jason Pritchard in 6th has had some intercom problems in his Impreza and also picked a wrong tyre for the loop and was swapping tyres between stages.
Just outside the leaderboard Mark Donnelly is 11th and leading his class as well as the Citroen Racing Trophy contenders. Elfyn Evans is 12th o/a in his Fiesta. The 2 Finnish drivers Nikara and Rantanen are 13th and 14th in their Twingos and Robert Barrable is 15th in his C2R2 Max.
Six GpB cars started the day running ahead of the International field but one has just retired, the Chevette HSR of Gary Gee with the legendary Ian Grindrod co-driving. The head gasket blew after 3 stages. Later on today the Bastos BMW M3 will be in action on the Castletown stage. Patrick Snijers will be driving. Interestingly, this car was found in a Moscow factory last year with a full-equipped service van parked beside it. In the door pocket was a set of pace notes for the 1981 Killarney Rally of the Lakes. Nicolai & Igor Bolshevik drove the car on that rally. They had a legendary battle with the late Bertie Fisher that year.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net(with thanks to Ciara)
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