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RALLY
NEWS NO.7
Cork Rochestown Pk./Sunday 09.00
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 8 (OVERNIGHT)
1st (1) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 1.06.23
2nd (2) Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey (Impreza WRC)
1.07.25
3RD (4) Peadar Hurson/Ian Porter (Celica GT4) 1.07.51
4TH (5) Donal O'Donovan/Pat Lordan (Celica GT4) 1.09.05
5TH (8) Maurice Gass/Geoffrey Orr (Impreza WRC) 1.10.21
6TH (19) Bob Fowden/Jerry Hynes (Lancer 5 N) 1.11.30
7TH (9) Ollie O'Donovan/David Moynihan (Subaru) 1.12.21
8TH (16) Trevor Cathers/Dessie Wilson (Lancer 5 N) 1.12.21
9TH (7) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 1.12.49
10TH (25) Dickie Curran/Anthony Donnelly (Lancer 6 N)
1.13.07
11TH (31) Pat White/Aidan Moran (Impreza WRC) 1.13.19
12th (23) Aaron MacHale/Elva Roe (Lancer 5 N) 1.13.21
13th Paul Alexander 14th Kieran O'Neill 15th Nigel Hicklin
16th Dominic Loughran 17th Roy White 18th Padraig price
19th David James 20th Barry Coleman.
There were no major changes to the overnight results.
Andrew Nesbitt tackles today's 6 stages with a relatively
comfortable 1m2s lead over Eamonn Boland, Peadar Hurson
just 26s behind Boland's sky blue Impreza WRX. These
gaps seem fairly secure buffers, but the stages are of a
different character from day 1. Today's roads are
mostly through rolling farmland, and there are many slippy
patches and tight places to catch the unwary.
Spice will be added with the addition of Austin MacHale
doing high speed OO duties in his Corolla WRC. The 5
times Tarmac Champion told us that the reason the car
stopped yesterday was a very obscure break in a wire in the
loom. It took the engineers several hours to trace
the fault. Austin's stage times yesterday were reminiscent
of the MacHale of old. Austin reports that the new
suspension and upgrade in power has transformed the car.
He is trying a further tweak to the suspension this
morning.
130 cars started the main rally, 88 are still running for
this 2nd day plus 14 Historics. Martin Freestone in
his Mk1 Escort heads the Post Historics from Frank
Cunningham. Mervyn Johnston leads the Historics in his Mini
Cooper S. Front Historic runner Philip Wylie retired his
MGB with mechanical problems.
The spotlight is always on the top cars, but there is also
much interest in the class battles as well. Kieran O'Neill
was fastest of the Modified cars on Saturday from Padraig
Price, with David James, despite a lack of power steering
in his Escort, 3rd. O'Neill, Price and James all run
in class 13. Danny McEvoy heads cl.12 in his Escort
from Declan McNaughton. John Quinn in his Chevette heads
cl.11 from Gerard O'Connell. Fintan Canty, co driven by
Rebecca Walsh, heads cl.10 from Tim O'Donovan's Corolla,
with Mark Nangle in another Toyota 3rd. Ken O'Neill (Nova)
is 1st in cl.9 from Willie Cavanagh in an Escort.
Brendan Kelly, a Ford Ireland Focus contender,leads Class 7
from Cathal O'Reilly. Charlie Hickey 3rd in cl.7 in a
Peugeot 306. Shane McCarthy in a Peugeot 106 leads cl.6
from Eugene Meegan, with Alan Ring 3rd. David Lyons, Cathal
Greeney and Martin Laverty are the top 3 in class 5, all
competing in the Ford Ireland Ka series. Alan McMahon
leads cl.3. Owen O'Neill class 2 and Pat O'Connor class 1.
Latest news from Le Touquet is that it is raining - and
Shaun Gallagher has extended his lead over Garry Jennings
to 25s in the Peugeot 206 Super Cup. More news later.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
www.rallynews.net
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