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| Rally Isle of Man |
| RALLY NEWS No.9 - After SS17 - Saturday @ 13:20:38 |
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MANX TAILS/RALLYNEWS NO.9 Grandstand/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER SS 17 Slieau Whallian
1st (2) Keith Cronin/Barry McNulty (Impreza N) 1.37.19.0
2nd (3) Gwyndaf Evans/Gareth Roberts (Lancer N) 1.39.00.7
3rd (10) Jason Pritchard/Robbie Durant (Impreza N) 1.40.41.7
4th (6) Jonny Greer/Gordon Noble (Lancer N) 1.41.05.4
5th (8) Steven Quine/Richard Skinner (Lancer N) 1.42.49.6
6th (19) Jarkko Nikara/Petri Nikara (Twingo) 1.44.37.1
7th (9) Euan Thorburn/Paul Beaton (Lancer N) 1.45.01.9
8th (17) Elfyn Evans/Andrew Edwards (Fiesta) 1.45.02.4
9th (18) Matti Rantanen/Mikko Lukka (Twingo) 1.45.30.4
10th (20) Robert Barrable/Damien Connolly (Citroen) 1.45.30.9
Very heavy persistent rain left the roads awash on the south of the Island for the lead drivers as they set out to tackle another loop of 3 stages. Rally leader Keith Cronin brought his Pirelli backed Impreza into the finish of stage 17 and said. “The car was aquaplaning everywhere, very difficult.” Fastest through the stage was Gwyndaf Evans a couple of seconds up on Jason Pritchard with Keith Cronin just .8 of a second slower than Pritchard. When we talked to Gwyndaf earlier in service and asked him was he still trying hard, the Welshman replied. “That is why I am here. To race. If I stop trying the mechanics may as well go home!” Still, with 1m40s to make up over the next 4 stages there is little chance of Gwyndaf moving into the lead, unless of course there is a major upset at the front.
The times coming in from stage 18 show Keith Cronin fastest with Jason Pritchard 2nd fastest and Gwyndaf 3rd. So obviously Keith has no intention of giving Gwyndaf too much encouragement. Jonny Greer was half a minute down on that 18th stage which dents his chances of taking 3rd place from Pritchard. However Jonny still leads the British Championship points as well as the Mitsubishi Evo points so it is very much in his interest to get the car to the finish today.
In the battle for class R2 Jarkko Nikara still holds the upper hand and was fastest through the 17th stage by just over a second from Elfyn Evans. Robert Barrable continues to defend his Citroen Trophy lead over Mark Donnelly but Robert is making no impression on the 2 Twingos and the Fiesta ahead as regards the class. There was quite a scramble whenever the cars were leaving service as more news came in about the wet roads. Robert Barrable and indeed many of the drivers had to put more cuts into their intermediate Pirelli tyres to counteract the wet conditions. Interestingly, the class R2 cars are allowed 20 tyres for the weekend and the cars in class R2 are limited to 14. John McCrone lost a bit of time when his Fiesta suffered 2 punctures on consecutive stages. Richard Sykes’ Citroen is still going strong despite yesterday’s fire although now when he turns the ignition key off, the engine just keeps running. We have no time for Sigurdarson in stage 18. Unconfirmed reports suggest his Lancer may be off the road.
In Category 1 of the Historic Rally Jonathan Gale in the Sunbeam Tiger leads Dessie Nutt in his Porsche 911 with Rikkii Proffitt 3rd in another Porsche. Dessie Nutt told us that he is driving as hard as he can go, doing nothing wrong, but can make no impression on the Gale tiger in front. In Category 2 David Stokes in is Escort RS1600 has a solid lead over Rupert Lomax in a similar Escort. In Category 3 Ryan Barrett now leads from Darren Moon with Will Onions 3rd and Guy Woodcock 3rd, all in Escorts.
WRC Rally Bulgaria: Petter Solberg and his new co driver Chris Patterson have set the fastest time in stage 8 which is pretty significant. Petter has taken a slight gamble on hard compound tyres as the ambient temperature on the rally has soared to over 30 degrees. There are clouds gathering over the nearby mountains and Petter has his fingers cross that the weather stays fine for the next 2 stages.
More news leter: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (Thanks to Ciara for Rally News distribution)
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