News Flash
ROC NEWS FLASH 9am, Day Two (after SS10)
CROCKER (Car 1): Everything fine, although marginally slower time on stage than yesterday. Goal today is to achieve bonus points for winning day two and rally outright. Second quickest
TAGUCHI (Car 2): Quickest of the A-P drivers on the opening stage today, and 22 secs faster than the time he set on Tidbinbilla yesterday. Charging hard.
EVANS (Car 15): Went off and was partially blocking the track. Following drivers forced to slow. Will continue if able to extricate car.
PEDDER (Car 3): Came out of stage with a large hole, the size of a tennis ball, in his Lancer's rear diff. Diff weeping oil but crew is pressing on, despite two more stages until service.
GUEST (Car 14): Restarted under SUPERrally regs after an overnight repair. Going well so far but was slowed on stage by incidents involving Evans and Wilks.
WILKS (Car 13): Stopped on stage, trying to get out but partially blocking the road, forcing following cars to crawl past carefully.
KAMADA (Car 6): Eight minutes slower on stage than Taguchi. Clipped a tree and damaged the front right of the car. Managed to get out of the stage and ripped off broken bumper. Continuing on.
HERRIDGE (Car 5): Six seconds slower than Cody on the stage but very happy; things going well so far. 15 seconds faster today than on same stage yesterday.
YANAGISAWA (Car 4): Very slippery in the bulldust.
LEYRAUD (Car 7): Quicker than yesterday on this stage. Came out of stage and changed both wheels ion left hand side of car, after rolling tyres off their rims.
SUNGKAR (Car 8): Have lost considerable power. Don't know what the problem is. Suspect it could be a turbo. 7 sec faster than stage time set yesterday.
4pm: Flash 4
CROCKER (Car 1): No problems. Great start to the rally. A little disappointed with shock absorber settings but have made some adjustments. Tyre wear minimal, which is surprising.
PEDDER (Car 3): Very dusty following in Cody's wake. Pushing very hard but very happy generally.
HERRIDGE (Car 5): More than happy. Believes he is now in a great starting position for Day 2.
LEYRAUD (Car 7): Non-committal but happy with car.
SUNGKAR (Car 8): Fourth place. Pleased with tyre selection and as it is his third time at the rally, he feels he is getting on top of the pace notes.
GREEN (Car 11): Missing third and fourth gears in gearbox; second and fifth gears only. Proceeding through stage with hazard lights on. Will change gearbox at service.
KAMADA (Car 6): Not yet reached end control stage 8. Not sure of problem.
RODDA (Car 46): Car rolled and hit tree in SS7, 11.6km into stage, and catches fire. Crew use extinguisher to put out fire.
1.15pm:
GUEST (Car 14) hits bank, slowed on SS2 & SS3 by broken suspension arm; repaired in service. On SS5, hit kangaroo and out.
EVANS (Car 15) rolls on SS3; superficial damage only. 1 minute late booking into service. Incurs 10 sec late penalty. Continues on to post 2nd fastest time on SS4.
CROCKER (Car 1) going strongly with 31.6sec lead after SS5.
EVANS (Car 21) repaired after hitting kangaroo earlier. Team used Flexi-service capability to hold back Car 22 so full resources could be focused on repair effort. No penalty incurred.
CHRISTIAN (Car 10) out with broken gearbox.
9.40am (after SS2)
Many drivers stopped at the Cotter Reserve to swap or change tyres. British driver WILKS (Car 13) carried two spare tyres into the morning stages and was swapping the brand new spares onto the front end of his Honda Civic Type R.
TAGUCHI (Car 2) was parked on the side of the road on SS2. Early reports suggest engine failure.
EVANS (Car 21) still going despite front end damage from hitting a kangaroo on SS1. No glass broken but extensive panel damage. Power steering has failed.
GUEST (Car 14) slower than expected. Problems are likely as the car appears to be dropping oil or similar on the road but still mobile.
DOWEL (Car 29) gearbox problems. Appears likely to withdraw.
QUINN (Car 16) fuel pump problems. Appears likely to withdraw.
KAITLER (Car 31) stopped on side of road on SS2. Status unknown.
Comments after SS1
Cody CROCKER, Car 1 (finishing 12.4 seconds up on Katsu Taguchi): 'All felt good, good tyre wear. Little bit slippery.
Katsu TAGUCH, Car 2: 'No problems. Running hard compound MRF tyres. Cody is driving off the road and putting all the gravel back on the road!'.
Scott PEDDER, Car 3: Hit a gate post but ok. Last 5km pretty lose but didn't lose too much time in the dust.
YANAGISAWA Hiroshi, Car 4: No comments
Dean HERRIDGE, Car 5 - car feels good. A bit dusty. Happy with first stage time. Slowed because of dust from the car in front.
KAMADA Takuma, Car 6 - new STI - puncture on back right, slowed and then had to stop and change it.
Jean-Louis LEYRAUD, Car 7 - no problems at all. No tyre wear on the car.
Rifat SUNGKAR, Car 8 - Caught in Kamada's dust and lost time. 'I followed him to the end of the stage, but it's a long rally so I hope to make up time'.
Patrick Christian, Car 9 -- all ok.
Brian GREEN ,Car 11 - everything fine. Typical Canberra slippery roads
Car 16 on the side of the road
Car 22 (ARC, Simon Evans) hit a kangaroo - significant damage to the front of the car.
Updated at 9.15am.
