RALLY NEWS NO.5                     Service - Sunday 4pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6  Black Road
1st (4) Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 40.46
2nd (5) Daniel & Michael Doherty (Impreza WRC) 41.33
3rd (2) Jim Harrison/Harvey Bell (Impreza WRC) 41.41
4th (3) Patrick Elliott/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 41.47
5th (6) Cathal Arthurs/Jakes Kelly (Accent WRC) 42.09
6th (11) George Cullen/Dominic Downey (Impreza WRC)  42.21
7th (1) Niall Maguire/Paul McLoughlin (Impreza WRC) 42.38
8th (12) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sulllivan (Celica) 43.11
9th (10) John Spain/Keith Sheppard (Celica) 43.41
10th (14) Kevin Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 43.47
11th (16) Willie Fannin/Michael Courtney (Impreza N) 43.50

The rally moved to a new area after lunch to take in the Clonlee and Black Road stages, with Kevin Lynch seemingly going all the harder the tougher the territory.  Through stage 5 Lynch clocked 7.36 in his KPL Subaru with Daniel Doherty on 7.42 and Patrick Elliott 7.49.  Jim Harrison overshot a junction on that stage, stalled the car and dropped quite a few seconds. His time 8.04.  In stage 6 Lynch was again the man, with a phenomenal time of 10m12s.  Jim Harrison was 2nd fastest on 10.26 and Daniel Doherty 3rd with 10.27.  Doherty reckons his older model Subaru is just running out of steam on the faster sections. Lynch said "I wanted to keep the pressure on, so far so good and I've kept it altogether".  Patrick Elliott reported an overshoot in stage 6 and he lost a few seconds.

Cathal Arthurs in 5th place has damaged the 3rd gear of his Hyundai, the spare box is apparently unsuitable and his engineers are going to try to replace the 3rd gear cog here at service. George Cullen caught and passed Denis Biggerstaff, also caught up with John Spain, Cullen very happy with the way the McGarrity Subaru is going, and finds the more miles he does and the more miles he drives it, the better it is.  Biggerstaff lost a lot of time in stage 5, had been going well, but then spun the car, and couldn't get gears.  John Spain's engine cut out and he also dropped a bit of time.  Sean Gallagher had been in the top 10 but his Subaru has reportedly stopped with a blown engine. Denis Cronin took a gamble on damp weather tyres and they went off in stage 6 costing a few seconds. 

      
In Group N Willie Fannin now leads fairly conclusively.  Alan Ring caught a front left wheel on a rock on a narrow downhill fast section of stage 5 and burst a tyre, also damaging the suspension slightly.  Alan stopped and changed the rim but lost 5 minutes.  James O'Sullivan also had a puncture and dropped about a minute.  This leaves Adrian Quinn 2nd in gpN, Peter Clifford 3rd. James O'Sullivan 4th and Jack Sleator a wee bit further back as he gets accustomed to his new Impreza.  Peter Clifford did lose a few seconds in stage 6 when his Lancer ran low on fuel and spluttered the last few miles of the test.

News of a further retirement is that the McHugh brothers, Joe and Dermot, have blown the engine on their Escort Cosworth.  Some class leaders after stage 5 include: Paddy Boyle leading Cl.13. Trevor Lancashire still leads cl.12. Mike Quinn cl.14. Thomas O'Rourke cl.3. Dan Mulcahy cl.15. John Paul Ruth cl.7 ahead of Keith Lyons in the Focus. Frank O'Mahony's daughter Emily was leading cl.5 earlier, her brother Brian 2nd - we haven't got their times to hand. Eddie Power leads cl.6 in his Clio. Gerard Hodgins cl.10 in his Peugeot 205.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON  (with thanks to Charlie McGuckin of Micro-Cam for the refreshments)  www.rallynews.net