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RALLY NEWS
NO.8 Service/Port Laoise..Sunday 11.45
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 11
1st (1) Austin McHale/Brian Murphy (Corolla WRC) 1.21.39
2nd (4) Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Celica)1.23.08
3rd (6) Peadar Hurson/Ian Porter (Escort Cos) 1.24.52
4th (25) John Treacy/John Smithwick (Escort) 1.26.43
5th (24) George Treacey/Alan Treacey (Impreza N)1.28.11
6th (11) Dominic Loughran/Lisa Mangan (Sierra) 1.28.48
7th (26) Eugene Ferry/John Gallagher (Escort) 1.29.01
8th (175) Peter McCullagh/Greg McCarthy (Escort Cos)1.30.55
9th (162) Trevor Culbert/James Glynn (Escort) 1.31.36
10th (77) Francis Corrigan/Niall Driver (LancerN)1.31.41
Peadar Hurson was leading this Dunlop Rally of Ireland starting
stage 11, Rock of Dunamase, but his Escort Cosworth developed
turbo trouble half way through the 9.4 mile test. The Warrenpoint
man was forced to stop his Escort Cosworth, jump out, dive under
the bonnet and switch off the oil supply to the turbo. Between
the lack of speed from the car and having to stop, Peadar dropped
between 3 and 4 minutes to McHale, allowing the Toyota driver
into a comfrotable lead. McHale's lead now looks very comfortable
over Michael Barrable - through that stage 11 Austin was 8s faster
than Barrable. When asked about the car's handling, Austin
told us "It's OK, but one of the struts is quite old now
and there's 3 new ones, so its still not right on the high speed
stuff. We're waiting on new step 3 suspension. Its basically
new 1000 Lakes specification which the factory is now modifying
for San Remo, for tarmac, and I hope to get that".
Michael Barrable reported a very slight hesitation in his Celica
on that stage 11 but still had a good run. Fourth placed John
Treacy felt that his intermediate choice of tyre should have
been dry weather slicks as the roads now warm up.
We reported on our last Rallynews that Patrick Elliott was running
late at stage 10, since that we hear that he went into stage
11 more or less on schedule, but unfortunately crashed 3 miles
into the stage. We are staill awaiting futher detials, but several
of the following cars reported stopping at the radio point to
make them aware of the accident. This leaves George Treacey now
leading gpN in his new Subaru Impreza and very much in line for
the œ500 prize put up by Subaru Ireland.
We also reported earlier that we had an unconfirmed report that
Douglas Richardson had stopped - this would appear to be untrue
- but he was re-routed to miss stage 10 which was stopped. No
information as yet on the Ford Ka Championship runners - they
joined the rally this morning and of course stages 10 and 11
have been interrupted. Finally for now, it is interesting
that we now have 3 McHales on the rally. Austin is leading of
course, Aaron was 3rd in class overnight, driving a Nova and
now 19 year old Gareth joins in at the front of the rally, OOing
in his newly acquired ex James Foley Civic...more news later..BRIAN
AND LIZ PATTERSON..(thanks to Joe Rocheford and Dunlop) |
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