RALLY NEWS NO.2        End of stage 1 -Sunday 1pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 1 (Mount Louis)

1st (1) Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza WRC) 10.10
2nd (2) Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 10.36
3rd (5) Patrick Elliott/Sean Moriarty (Impreza) 10.42
4th (25) Andrew Stewart/Fabian McShane (Lancer N) 10.44
5th (11) Sean Gallagher/Liam Costello (Esc.Cos) 10.53
6th (30) Aaron McHale/Andrew Cullen (Lancer N) 10.57
7th (6) Kieran Shaw/Crawford Henderson (Escort WRC) 11.01
8th (18) Dessie Kennan/Enda Sherry (Escort) 11.08
9th (7) Sean McArdle/Ger McMonagle (Impreza) 11.10
10th (8) Kevin Barrett/Declan Tumilty (Impreza WRC) 11.14
     (15) Mac McKenna/John Loughran (Peugeot rwd) 11.14
     (21) Alan Nesbitt/Lisa Mangan (Escort) 11.14

Despite red tape dangling from the front of his Subaru, testimony to some
hard driving, Niall Maguire dominated the time sheets on the first stage of
this Monaghan Rally.  Niall commented at the end of that Mount Louis test
"Everything went well, pretty slippy, but no problems".  A suntanned Michael
Barrable, fresh from his holidays, arrived in in 2nd place, also reporting no
problems, but well off the leader's pace on that opening test.  There was a
few moments peace and quiet then after Barrable's crackling Subaru, the
Escort Cosworths of David Armstrong and Glenn Allen failing to appear at
stage finish.  One of Glenn's mechanics did get a message to us that the
Magherafelt man's Escort WRC was marooned at junction 7 with a broken clutch.
 No word on Armstrong. Oops...just had news that Armstrong's engine had blown
up 4-5 miles into the stage.  Third on the road, Patrick Elliott, reported no
big problems but at the same time wasn't entirely happy, telling us "I know
it was a bit slow, but the brake balance we just couldn't get right". 

Car 25 Andrew Stewart appeared next on the time sheets - another brilliant
drive from the often under-rated Letterkenny man - fastest in gpN as well,
and that was despite losing a few seconds when he caught and passed his gpn
rival Martin Brady. Martin's time was 10.35. One of the favourites for gpN
was Adrian McElvaney, but the local Scania man had reportedly slid his Lancer
off the road somewhere mid stage. It was reported that there was a fair
chance he would get going, but still no sign of him when we left the stage
finish about 7 cars after his due time. Aaron McHale was 2nd in gpN, Aaron
sweating hard at stage finish, and looks as if he is now coming to grips with
his gpN Lancer.

Another one missing at stage finish was Maurice Moffett, his rear wheel drive
Peugeot reportedly parked up.  Norman Armstrong finished the stage with his
Escort minus 2nd gear and we believe has since retired. Times just outside
the leaderboard idnclude - Ivan Stewart on 11.22: Joe McHugh 11.31: Philip
Shaw, his engine not running properly, 11.23: Enda Keenan going well on
11.16. Rodney Wilton 11.23: Trevor Lancashire 11.29 and Mervyn Wedlock 11.25.
More news later...BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON