Saturday – 2.00pm

Hardly had the ink dried on ‘Sunseeker Soundings No.2’ when Paul Bird’s lead of Rallye Sunseeker came to an abrupt halt. The Ford Focus WRC driver, partnered by Ian Windress, lost a minute to the leaders on SS10, Bere Wood, and immediately dropped back to third place, behind the Subaru Imprezas of Will Nicholls/Nick Broom and Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield. There are 20 miles, or so, of stages left – can Bird make up the difference? Time will tell, but the spectators are in for a treat while he tries!Sean Devine is plugging away in 4th place and Anthony Willmington is driving out of his skin to keep his ageing Lancer EVOVI in 5th. The Top Six is rounded off by Daniel Barry’s EVOIX but he has a gaggle of similar cars behind him and cannot afford to relax for a second. Indeed, the next three places are all Group N Lancers and there is less than half a minute between all of them.  
 
The retirements list has been swelled by the addition of Mike Harris Jr whose Impreza lost all its oil and Bournemouth driver Darren Jones was subjected to the proverbial ‘early bath’ when his Skoda Felicia ground to a halt with differential failure.Top Ten After 10 Stages :

1.         Will Nicholls/Nick Broom                             Subaru Impreza WRC          36m42.1s
2.         Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield           Subaru Impreza WRC          36m58.6s
3.         Paul Bird/Ian Windress                                Ford Focus WRC                  37m33.1s
4.         Sean Devine/Francis Regan                        Subaru Impreza S11             37m56.7s       
5.         Anthony Willmington/Andy White              Mitsubishi Lancer EVOVI    38m12.7s
6.         Daniel Barry/Martin Brady                           Mitsubishi Lancer EVOIX    38m16.9s
7.         Simon Hughes/Patrick Walsh                     Mitsubishi Lancer EVOIX    38m17.7s
8.         Nik Elsmore/Craig Drew                              Mitsubishi Lancer EVOIX    38m32.0s
9.         Andreas Magnusson/Henrik Hulterskog   Mitsubishi Lancer EVOIX    38m41.5s
10.       Alan Cookson/Julian Wilkinson                  Subaru Impreza WRC          38m49.0s More news later…