Round 5 - 2000 Super 106 Cup

The first true test of the day was the 7.73 mile Whiteadder Dam stage which saw Champion move into first place after he finished 10.2 seconds ahead of Nutt, with Galligan 1.6 seconds back. Dave West was really struggling after breaking a drive shaft on Stage 2 and having to crawl through the stage with one wheel drive.

Stage 4 was cancelled due to an accident and the same time was allocated to all the Super 106 Cup competitors. Stage 5 saw Champion quickest with Galligan in hot pursuit, although a full 23 seconds behind on the leaderboard. Rob Russell was third only 1 second behind Galligan.

The sixth test Whitsome was won by Galligan 3.5 seconds ahead of Seamus Donnelly who had been suffering with brake problems, he switched from soft pads which were fading to hard pads which were causing the front to lock up. Andy Burnell was also on the pace a couple of seconds behind Donnelly. Champion however broke a shaft and dropped over 3 minutes promoting Galligan to first place, with David Nutt 8 seconds back in 2nd and Martin Sansom 3rd.

The 7 mile Fogo stage saw Burnell quickest with Sansom only one second light. Nutt had a terrible stage dropping 12 minutes with a major off. This promoted Burnell to 3rd place.

The re-run of Langton saw yet another new stage winner with Paul Wedgbury pipping Seamus Donnelly by 0.5 seconds. The repeat run saw the pair reverse the positions with Donnelly ahead by 0.1 second. Burnell dropped 10 seconds and slipped out of the leading three, to be replaced by Wedgbury.

The final stage of the first leg was a return to Whitadder Dam and the 7.73 mile stage fell to Galligan, 4 seconds ahead of a charging Dave Nutt who was now competing purely for fun.

The first stages of the leg, SS11 & SS12 Nisbet Rhodes, were a repeat of the previous days short Langton stages but held in the reverse direction. Wedgbury was quickest on 11 with Sansom taking 12, though Sansom was concerned about his gearbox. Burnell had his worst moment as his throttle jammed open on the long straight and he had to release his belts to free it by hand. He was relieved to have only dropped 2 seconds as a result.

SS13 Eccles again saw Sansom quickest taking 4.2 seconds from Donnelly and six from the rapid Burnell. Michael Brew lost time avoiding a car that had gone off in front of him. Galligan appeared to be driving a little more conservatively trying to hold on to his lead however, Sansom was catching him rapidly and he moved to within 8 seconds of him on the stage with Donnelly 3rd 14 seconds behind.

Swinton was the next test and Galligan responded by beating McKillen by two seconds and Sansom by six. Rob Russell rolled and Sykes complained that he was flat out in 5th all the time. Leading rookie Simon Hughes resorted to crowd pleasing at the crossroads raising a cheer from the locals.

Eyemouth fell to McKillen who pipped Galligan by 4 seconds, Galligan said; "I made a mistake on the recce and we had one of the bends as a long right, it wasn't long at all, but we made it long when we went into the field."

Sansom, McKillen and Galligan were split by one second in Ayton leaving Galligan to head the field by 12 seconds from Sansom and Donnelly, who felt it was all getting a bit hectic, was 3rd a further 23 seconds behind. Neil Edwards clipped a stone and was not enjoying the dusky conditions.

Abbey St Bathans, the longest stage in the event at 14.52 miles again saw Galligan stamp his authority on the event finishing 5 seconds ahead of McKillen and 14 clear of Sansom, who was complaining that his lights were not set up right, a problem afflicting Brew as well. Donnelly lost time as he was running low on fuel with the car intermittently cutting out.

Stages 18 & 19 the re-run of Nisbet Rhodes, saw 5 of the competitors split by an incredible 0.3 seconds, again emphasizing the equality of the drivers and the cars.

Stage 20 Eccles was cancelled and 21 Swinton was captured by Burnell. Dramatically Galligan lost 19 seconds with gear selection problems although this was offset by Sansom losing time as well due to an overshoot.

Stage 22 saw Galligan still leading with Sansom 2nd and Donnelly 3rd, indeed Galligan was also quickest through the stage with Sansom 4 seconds back.

The penultimate stage Ayton saw Galligan again struggling with the gears dropping 10 seconds to the quickening Burnell.

Into the final stage Abbey St Bathans, Galligan held a slender 15 second lead over Sansom with Donnelly holding onto 3rd place by 18 seconds from Burnell.

Sansom then produced the performance of the day with a coup de grace time 26 seconds ahead of Galligan to take an unexpected last minute win. Seamus Donnelly and Billy McCullins were 3rd and Andy Burnell and Neil Dashfield had to settle for 4th. The top five was completed by Paul Wedgbury and Ian Regan.

Andy Burnell, holds on to his place as current Championship leader on 91 points with Sansom moving into second place on 84 points and Wedgbury 3rd with 80 points.