McRae: 'stage shouldn’t have been re-used’
Colin McRae, who rolled out of the Rally Great Britain lead on SS12, Rheola 2, says event organisers should have cancelled the stage after conditions deteriorated dramatically during the first run through
McRae rolled and broke his Ford Focus's radiator just one mile into the stage after bouncing out of deep ruts caused by this morning's first run through the 19.5-mile test.
Heavy rain during much of November has made the stages extremely slippery and treacherous, with the 100-plus cars still running leaving the forest tracks even more badly cut up for the event's repeated stages at Margam and Rheola.
"The road was very rutted after the morning," said the Scot. "We hit some very bad ruts, understeered off into a hole and burst the radiator.
"If the stage is going to be in that sort of condition, we shouldn't re-use them. It was bad enough already this morning, but this makes it even more difficult for the drivers and makes things like this happen more easily."
McRae and co-driver Nicky Grist carried on until junction five, three miles into the stage, but were forced to give up due to overheating.
"We lost the water fairly quickly," he added. "Once we knew something was broken, we knew we were in trouble, but we carried on as far as we could."
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