London to Sydney Marathon

5th June - 4th July 2004

Day 2 - St Malo to Poitiers

McANDREW OFF - KEITH CALLINAN TAKES THE LEAD

In a bold bid to increase his lead Joe McAndrew tried a bit too hard and flew off the road on the first stage in France. Unable to get back on course he was forced to sit and watch the entire field race by. His penalties relegate him to 19th place.

Keith Callinan in his V8 Monaro scorched through the stage in record time to take over the lead by a scant one second ahead of Simon Glover in his classic Escort. Ten seconds back in third place is Jimmy McRae who sits just two seconds ahead of team boss Graham Lorimer in their Toyota Corollas.

So the battle between the classics and the mods hots up with a pair of classics in the lead with a pair of Corollas hot on their tail and just 25 seconds cover the leading five runners.

Aussie Peter Lockhart in his Proton Satria had a modest argument with what he describes as a pile of badly placed logs requiring a touch of panel beating dropping him back to 27th place.

Shane Murland in another of the Kiwi McAndrew Hondas had a mild excursion going off and stranding himself in a small ditch dropping back to 22nd place. Not a good day for the Kiwi Hondas. Joe's new found grasp of the French vocabulary starts with 'Merde'.

Of yesterday's three walking wounded Callinan and Shaver did make it to the Portsmouth ferry. American Chip Johns and Brit co-driver Jim Hurman weren't so lucky, they were delayed and had to hightail it Dover to catch the 03.00hrs ferry to Calais. Then it was a pre-dawn cross country dash to rejoin the rally, bleary eyed and unshaven, before the first stage of the day.

Lessons learnt today by some of the front runners….. too hard, too fast, too soon. more...

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5th June to 4th July 2004 day by day