Rally - National roundup

There's been a wee bit of re-jigging of the earlier results with Ieaun Rowlands losing that 4 min penalty he had, and John Morrison has lost his as well which has re-shuffled the leaderboard. Quite a few folk got a penalty after Roger Duckworth's accident but it's all been sorted out now.

However, Mike Faulkner and Peter Foy still lead the National Rally Wales GB from Rowlands with Andrew Gallacher and Jane Nicol not far behind, and Barry Groundwater and Neil Shanks on their tail. It's all very close at the top.

Faulkner was a wee bit lucky on the first stage when he bent a rear wheel: "Some of the roads have a built-up edge to them," said Mike, "and we clattered into one of them." When the boys took the wheel off they found the top suspension arm had snapped - and he did the next three stages like that. "It made steering quite interesting," said Mike. He wasn't finished with that either: "We hit something else on the next stage and it knocked the steering out, but then we hit something on the next stage and it knocked it back into line!"

Barry Groundwater heaved a sigh of relief when he booked into service: "We've done a whole SRC round today, but I feel I could do more." He added: "It feels much later than it actually is. It feels like 6 o'clock, but it's only 3 o'clock. However, we've spotted a bar over there (in the spectator area) so Neil and I are going for a drink and the boys can get on with it!" Mind you he did have one serious complaint when he pulled into service and said to Wayne: "I don't hear the generator going, so that means no kettle, so that means no tea!" Now that WAS serious.

Andrew Gallacher has had his troubles too: "We bent a front chassis leg in Sweet Lamb. The suspension is OK, but it's pushed the front o/s corner and sumpguard up." Another problem was the cable from a wheel
sensor which had rubbed through on a tyre: "That's meant the centre diff is palying up and affecting traction." He also caught  an Escort in two stages: "He saw us quickly the first time and pulled over, but we had to follow him for a quarter of a mile the second time before he noticed us."

Leaderboard after 4 (of 13) stages:
1, Faulkner, 0:49:08.5
2, Rowlands, 0:49:39.0
3, Gallacher, 0:49:44.1
4, Groundwater, 0:50:05.1

9, Morrison, 0:51:57.1
15, MacLeod, 0:52:58.8
31, Goudie, 0:57:37.8
63, McRae, S, 1:05:00.1
85, Swann, 1:09:40.9

More to come ....