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| Rally Isle of Man |
| RALLY NEWS No.8 - After SS14 - Saturday @ 11:10:01 |
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MANX TAILS/RALLY NEWS NO.8 End of S14/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 14 THE CRONK
1st (2) Keith Cronin/Barry McNulty (Impreza N) 1.24.32.5
2nd (3) Gwyndaf Evans/Gareth Roberts (Lancer N) 1.26.24.6
3rd (10) Jason Pritchard/Robbie Durant (Impreza N) 1.27.47.3
4th (6) Jonny Greer/Gordon Noble (Lancer N) 1.27.57.5
5th (8) Steven Quine/Richard Skinner (Lancer N) 1.29.19.0
6th (19) Jarkko Nikara/Petri Nikara (Twingo) 1.30.35.8
7th (17) Elfyn Evans/Andrew Edwards (Fiesta) 1.31.10.2
8th (9) Euan Thorburn/Paul Beaton (Lancer N) 1.31.16.2
9th (20) Robert Barrable/Damien Connolly (Citroen) 1.31.30.7
10th (18) Matti Rantanen/Mikko Lukka (Twingo) 1.31.35.0
There was thick fog and drizzle at the TT Grandstand as the remaining cars on this Rally Isle of Man set off for the Day 2 stages. Amazingly over at the other side of the Island for the Cronk stage near Ballaugh the sun was splitting the trees and there were lovely blue skies. Most drivers had opted for a middle of the road safe tyre choice. Gwyndaf Evans was one of the few to choose a slick tyre with a few cuts in the tread of the Pirellis, just in case. It didn’t seem to make much difference to the performance – Keith Cronin was fastest and Gwyndaf was 8s down on the really leader.
West Cork man Keith reported no problems when he got to stage finish and his co driver Barry McNulty said “Steady away”. Keith has well over a minute of a lead over Evans and can afford to play the percentage game through the remaining 7 stages today. When Evans’ Lancer hove into sight at stage finish a splattering of feathers across the grill was testimony to a close encounter with a pheasant. Gwyndaf said that his car felt a small bit nervous in the stage but otherwise OK. In the race for 3rd place Jonny Greer managed to chisel 6s off Jason Pritchard to leave the gap between the two at just 10s. British Championship leader Jonny said he felt that his Lancer was moving about a bit.
Top placed Manx driver Steven Quine had an ear to ear grin at stage finish, the first time the normally smiley Steven had looked cheerful since the start of the rally. Steven said. “That was more like it”. Strangely though his time wasn’t that fantastic and he certainly made no impression on the leaders through that stage. Nigel Cannell in the Star Services Lancer had been the leading Manx driver but he’s back in 17th place following a 5m puncture last night. Nigel was 7s faster than Quine on that stage 14. However, Nigel has more than a mountain to climb to get back into the top 10. In the enthralling battle for class 2 honours Nikara was fastest again this morning. His Twingo team mate Rantanen lost quite a few seconds when his car side swiped the scenery. There was a broken side window and a flat rear tyre but none of the damage looked too serious.
Robert Barrable clipped a stone somewhere in the stage with his C2R2 Max wheel and he lost a few seconds worrying as to whether he had a puncture. Mark Donnelly in the 2nd of the Citroens told us. “I was having a cracking stage but then had an overshoot and lost time”. Elfyn Evans again turned in a really good stage time, just over a second slower than Nikara to hold 2nd place in R2. Euan Thorburn had a decent run as he gets more accustomed to his newly acquired ex Garry Jennings Lancer. News coming in from stage 15 is that Gwyndaf was .5 of a second faster than Cronin and Pritchard was just over a second faster than Greer. Tom Clark has rolled his Suzuki and may have retired. Finnish driver Mikko Pajunen put his Swift off the road briefly and is still going.
WRC Rally Bulgaria: Loeb was fastest on the first Saturday stage and Sordo quickest on the 2nd. Petter Solberg maintains a very strong 3rd place. Loeb leads the rally by 30s. The works Fords made a wrong tyre choice in the damp cold conditions and both Hirvonen & Latvala dropped around about a minute on the opening stage and more time on the 2nd.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Ciara)
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