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RALLY NEWS NO.2
Service In (Carrick-on-Suir)..Sun. 2pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 1
1st (2) Richie Curran/Owen Cleary (Escort WRC) 10.05
2nd (5) Willie O'Dwyer/Andrew Purcell (Metro 6R4) 10.27
3rd (3) Jimmy Lambert/James Coleman (Escort) 10.31
4th (7) John Moynihan/Thomas Moynihan (Escort) 10.32
5th (14) Colm Doyle/Michael Maher (Impreza N) 10.33
6th (12) Kieran Molloy/Brian Boland (Lancer N) 10.34
7th (1) Ray Breen/Podge Newe (Impreza) 10.44
8th (10) John Nolan/James Glynn (Escort) 10.50
9th (26) John Kearney/Owen O'Neill (Escort) 10.52
10th (8) Roy White/Des Cooney (Lancer N) 10.53
As suspected, the special stage turned out to be slippy in the extreme.
That didn't worry Richie Curran though. Richie is on his home
patch - his farm adjoins the stage - he powered his ex Frank Meagher
Escort WRC through the 10 miles of muddy leafy tarmac in dramatic style
to set a time that no one else in the 130 strong entry could even look
at. Richie commented at the stage finish "We used intermediate
tyres and got quite good grip. At one point we caught and passed
Ray Breen in the Subaru and after that we eased back
slightly. I'm very happy". As for Breen, he said "The
car's all over the place. Zero grip. We made a stupid mistake at a
junction as well when we spun, but really the car's going nowhere
fast!"
Jimmy Lambert was best of the Mk2 Escorts, Jimmy, with Suirway Forklifts
man James Coleman on the notes, said "Slippy but OK".
John Moynihan caught and passed David James in the stage, Millstreet man
Moyhnihan refusing to comment whether he lost any time in the manoeuvre,
but did say "There's more to come". As for James in the
BDX Escort, he told us "A bad run, the car is very tail happy, we
were very slow". At least David had his earlier
electrical problem, incurred on the familiarisation run, sorted out.
Drivers who didn't make service included...Shay Power, whose Escort has
just arrived in here on a tow rope, Eamonn Murphy and Fergal Allen.
We did hear that Fergal was running on a puncture on his BMW, so perhaps
that is something to do with non-appearance.
Other stories include..Roy White in the GpN Lancer reporting that he was
getting no grip and taking no chances, which leaves Colm Doyle 1s ahead
of Kieran Molloy for gpN honours at the moment. Remarkably, Doyle had 2
spins on the way to that very good time. David Long in the Sierra had
trouble with the gears and the car wasn't boosting, his time was 12.47.
In the Ford of Ireland Ka Challenge - just 2 cars in so far - points
leader John Carroll had a time
of 11.28 despite a plug lead coming off a few miles from the end of the
stage. His closest pursuer in the points Trevor Harding lost a fair bit
of time when his car suffered a puncture.
In Corsica Puras has won from Panizzi with Auriol 3rd, Solberg 4th,
Burns 5th and Martin 6th. We feel maybe that Martin was a bit slow on
the final stage to let Burns ahead and score an extra couple of WRC
points. Colin McRae moved back out of the top 10 earlier this morning
when his Focus ran over a large rock and incurred power steering damage.
More to follow..BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON
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