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News No.5 Limavady Service Saturday 5.20pm
Unofficial Leaderboard
After Stage 10 (Final Stage)
1st
(1) Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 42.17
2nd
(4) Glen Allen/Damien Connolly (Escort WRC) 43.41
3rd
(11) Kevin OâKane/Martin Hanna (Impreza WRC) 43.52
4th
(5) Denis Biggerstaff/Derek Brannigan (Impreza WRC) 44.22
5th
(7) Richard Hogg/Mark Hanna (Lancer N) 44.31
6th
(10) Dermott Kelly/Greg Shinnors (Escort WRC) 44.31
7th
(97) Eoin McErlean/R Scullion (EVO VI) 45.34
8th
(17) John McGlaughlin/David McElroy (Lancer N) 45.46
9th
(12) Brendan OâHagan/Paul Hone(Escort WRC) 45.49
10th
(16) Michael Curran/Fabian McShane (Lancer N) 46.01
11th
(21) Mark Barnett/Gerard Callaghan (Escort Mk2 46.03
They say a year
is a long time in motorsport, but it was this time last year when
Kevin Lynch scored his first ever rally victory. Today is another
red letter day for the Dungiven business man. It is now expected
of Kevin to do well, but todayâs demonstration was masterful. The
KPL Impreza was fastest on every stage, sometimes by over 2 seconds
a mile despite the car at one point having no sixth gear and then
the episode with the broken gear changer. Kevin has transformed
into one of Irelandâs finest drivers and today was just reward for
his efforts along with co-driver Francis Regan.
Battle for second
place was really hotting up going into the final two stages between
Glen Allen and Kieran Shaw. Unfortunately Kieran put his KBB Door
Impreza off the road in stage nine loosing a whooping four minutes
to the leaders and plummeting him out of the top ten. Glen though
was not able to cruise the final stage, with no sixth gear his Escort
WRC dashboard warning lights started to flash and the driver described
it as being like "a christmas tree", but once again scored
another fantastic result in his older machinery. Kevin OâKane was
super impressive this afternoon as his stage times were the best
of the rest moving him up to a fine third overall.
Eoin McErlean
has scored a faultless GpN victory today, the Lancer driver was
running slightly further down the field but was on the pace all
day, and was able to capitalise on John McGlaughlinâs time consuming
overshoot to win the category. John McGlaughlin himself put in a
storming drive over the final stage to finish second ahead of Michael
Curran while a late retirement was Seamus Donnelly whose Impreza
sprung a fairly serious oil leak. Mark Barnett drove his socks off
to win the 2wd battle from Alistair Cochrane in second and Andy
Magee in third. Although we reported Alistair Cochrane missing earlier,
he got his Mk2 fixed and back on the road with minimal time loss.
Once again congratulations to COC Michael Carlin, Martina McNicholl
and his team for another brilliant Dogleap Rally. Many thanks to
all those who helped and assisted with the Rally News service. Michael
Patterson & Zoe Todd
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