RALLY NEWS NO.7         Glenamaddy-Service-Sat.  3.30
www.rallynews.net
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 8 Doo Lake
1st (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 53.07
2ND (1) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Corolla WRC) 53.50
3RD (3) Peadar Hurson/Ian Porter (Celica) 54.12
4TH (6) Maurice Gass/Geoffrey Orr (Impreza WRC) 54.55
5TH (9) Roy White/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 55.00
6TH (8) Trevor Cathers/Dessie Wilson (Lancer N) 55.05
7TH (10) Seamus Leonard/Kevin O'Brien (Subaru N) 55.18
8TH (25) Seamus Heron/Billy McCullins (Celica) 57.16
9TH (31) Gerry McVeigh/Padraig Dineen (Lancer N) 57.38
10TH (18) Dominic Loughran/Lisa Roe (Lancer N) 57.40

Despite being in considerable pain after jarring his back following a heavy landing over a jump in stage 6 Eugene Donnelly set fastest times through stages 7 and 8.  On stage 7 Horse Leap, Donnelly's Subaru stopped the clock on 6.59. MacHale was 7.04 and Peadar Hurson 7.08.  In stage 8 Donnelly recorded 6.58. Hurson 7.07 and MacHale 7.08. Donnelly said, through gritted teeth here at service, "The pain isn't so bad now I will be carrying on. We're taking no chances". His co driver Paul Kiely said "I'm still enjoying myself!".  MacHale said "We're getting there, the tyres are working better and I have got a new intercom in my helmet".  Peadar Hurson recounted his accident "It was a shiny approach to a K left, she just took off on me. We went into the field, drove around it, but then jammed getting out and had to have another go at it".  Maurice Gass managed to hold on to 4th despite having been off the road in stage 6, and told us "I'm getting caught out at the junctions, the grip is so unpredictable. Hopefully the boys will be able to fit the lights to the damaged bonnet". 

In Group N Roy White admits to driving poorly in stage 6 to drop 5s to Trevor Cathers, dropped another 2 in stage 7, but got the hammer down in stage 8 and pulled 3 back.  Seamus Leonard put his Subaru off the road in stage 6 to lose the gpN lead, went well in stage 7, not too bad in stage 8.

Tom Holton did a lot of body damage to the front of his Celica in stage 8, he collided with a big concrete pier and although just a few seconds outside the top 10, Tom will almost certainly pull out of the rally now to prevent any further damage. In any case it would be almost impossible to fit lights to the car. Sean McArdle is also just lying outside the top 10 on a total of 58.33 and he has noticed a small vibration coming into his Celica.

In the Ford Ireland Focus category Oliver Stanley is still piling on the pressure trying to catch Colm Murphy for the lead today, and of course Stanley has to win today to win the c/ship. But Murphy has an advantage of 43s. John Foley is 3rd and Hamilton Bell 4th. Brendan Kelly lost a lot of time early on and is now setting really quick times but is hard pushed to make any impression on the leaders.
Last news we had on the National Rally was that Fergal Allen led by a few seconds from Tom Halliday but still waiting on modifieds arriving here at service. More to follow. BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON