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DENIS
BIGGERSTAFF AND DAMIAN MCCANN took their
second Northern Ireland Rally Championship podium
position of the year on the Easter Stages Rally.
After
a day fraught with problems, Denis brought his
Eurocables and Excel backed Metro 6R4 to the finish
in a fine second position. Speaking after the
event, Denis said: “Personally, we didn’t
have a good rally but our problems were probably
minor compared to Gary White and James Gillen.
The person who was first on the day was Eugene
Donnelly. He seemed to have the right tyres on
at the right time. I was very lucky to end up
with second place after all of our problems.”
Denis’
problems started on the very first stage with
a faulty intercom connection. This was fixed in
time for the second test only for another problem
to raise its head. “She overheated a bit,”
Denis commented. “I wasn’t prepared
to drive her on because I didn’t want to
harm the engine so we backed off half way through
the stage.”
The
engine had plenty of time to cool down before
the next stage as Denis and Damien were sitting
at the start for ‘close on two hours’,
for what seemed like no apparent reason. Eventually
they were let loose on the test but with concentration
levels low, Denis spun at the first corner.
“I
was brain-dead!” Denis joked. “It
was the silliest spin you have ever seen about
20 feet into the stage. There was gravel on the
first square-right and the car was on cold tyres.
The engine comes in very heavy at about 6000 revs
so with the combination of it all, the car just
did a full 360. It gave everybody a good cheer.
I can’t say it was bad because we were the
only crew that went through the stage.”
While
Denis and Damien made it safely to the end of
the test, the second crew on the road exited the
rally in spectacular fashion. James Gillen and
Victor Carruthers escaped unscathed but their
accident resulted in the stage being cancelled.
Everybody was allocated Denis’ time.
With
other stages being cancelled, the Easter Stages
crews had just two tests remaining. Denis fitted
slick tyres to the Eurocables 6R4, which is also
sponsored by Millers Oils, but when he reached
the start of the stage the roads were wet. Slick
tyres and wet roads were not a good combination
so Denis didn’t take any chances over the
remaining few miles and he arrived at the finish
in second position.
“I didn’t really enjoy the rally -
it was so stop-go-stop-go. Weather can change
in between the stages but with not having chase
cars it made it a bit more awkward. You needed
somebody on the stage to tell you what the conditions
were like. There are quite a few things we learned
from it which hopefully we can carry through to
the next event. I love the forests so hopefully
the Tour of the Sperrins will go a bit better
for me!”
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