Conditions continue to be horrible on the UK’s most
northerly stage rally with sleet and snow showers sweeping across the hills and
mountains, or as Mike Faulkner so succinctly and politely put it: “It would be impossible to describe
conditions today without swearing.” He should know he’s currently lying in 20th
place having suffered as one of the top seeds.
Mark McCulloch has taken the lead of the Snowman Rally after
4 stages with one to go, but there was a second delay this afternoon when
another spectator fell and broke and ankle, requiring the rally medics yet
again to swing into action.
Mark (36m 26s) has a 51 second lead over Donnie MacDonald
with Dale Robertson in third place. Jimmy Christie is fourth and Garry Pearson
has dropped back to fifth with Quintin Milne rounding off the top six.
This is the first time out in his new Evo9 for Mark: “We
just finished building the car on Thursday but it’s difficult to tell in these
conditions if it’s any better than the old car! I think we were off 2 or 3
times in SS3 then in SS4 it was muddy underneath the snow and slush with ruts
appearing in the softer sections.”
Donnie MacDonald is being sensible: “Mark’s got a good lead,
there’s no sense in risking anything with one stage to go. We hit so many
bankings in that last one I thought we were on a Scandinavian rally.”
Dale Robertson is being sensible too: “We had a moment on
every corner in Stage 3. It’s a good job my anti-lag switch it so big so I can quickly
switch it off when things get slippy.”
Shaun Sinclair went out in the second stage with head gasket
failure.
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