John Rintoul now holds the lead of the Summer Stages Rally at Crail after 5 stages by half a minute from Alistair Inglis. SS4 was cancelled so the event will be decided over 7 stages, with the final two being run now.
The big fight is for third with Gary Adam now the top 2WD car, but he's only 3 seconds clear of David Ross in the DAM, This is David's first time on tar but he does have the ex Andy Horne DAM: "I just got the springs and shock absorbers from Andy during the week and fitted them," he explained.
The tyre shredding John Paterson has dropped to fifth no doubt helped by the fact that he's just realised what the cost of a new set of Michelins is, and Ross Marshall in the 1600 MkII (but running in the 2 litre clas cos of his wide wheels) is snapping at his heels.
Stuart Walker is back in the top ten after a puncture this morning and Lee Hastings has just made the top ten but can't use his handbrake: "Because its got mechanical diffs, when I pull on the handbrake the car stalls because it doesn't have the right ECU - call it work in progress," he quipped. However, the biggest problem is that he can't 'showboat' to the speccies - so he's leaving that to top show-off Colin Gemmell!
Tom Morris is out and it is a gearbox fault, again. First gear has broken up, so it's a different problem this time. Ross Fernie is out too, losing out on a top six finish when his gearbox refused to select any gears.
Leaderboard after 5 (of 7) stages:
1, John Rintoul, 38m 51s
2, Alistair Inglis, 39m 29s
3, Gary Adam, 40m 13s
4, David Ross, 40m 16s
5, John Paterson, 40m 45s
6, Ross Marshall, 41m 03s
7, Colin Gemmell, 41m 18s
8, Peter Gibson, 41m 37s
9, Stuart Walker, 41m 49s
10, Lee Hastings, 41m 51s
