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RALLY NEWS NO.3
Castletownbere/Saturday 10.45
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 3 TIM HEALY
1st (2) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC)
19.27
2ND (3) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 19.37
3RD (5) Donie O'Sullivan/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 19.45
4TH (4) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 19.58
5TH (6) Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey (Lancer WRC)
20.03
6TH (15) JJ Fleming/Robbie Ward (Impreza WRC) 20.30
7TH (10) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 20.32
8TH (18) Johnny O'Sullivan/Pat Cashman (Escort WRC) 20.40
9TH (14) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (Celica) 20.54
10TH (19) Nigel Nicklin/Sam McMullan (Impreza WRC) 20.58
11TH (46) Alan Ring/Greg Shinnors (Impreza N) 21.16
12TH (29) Willie Fannin/Michael Courtney (Impreza N) 21.23
Even after just 3 stages of this long tough Rally of the
Lakes a pattern is emerging at the front, with Derek
McGarrity just having the edge over Eugene Donnelly, with
Donie O'Sullivan just a fraction back. McGarrity
looked unstressed here at service here at the beautiful
Castletownbere Harbour region and told us
"Everything's dead on, we've softened the suspension
which should help over the bumps. The Pirelli tyres were
brilliant over the first couple of stages, and were just
going off very slightly at the end of Tim Healy, but then
I don't think any tyres would have stuck that. In
the dry conditions there is massive grip".
Eugene Donnelly in 2nd looked more than a little
frustrated as he recounted. "I just can't go any
harder in this car, although I still don't think I've got
the tyre choice right. The car is sliding about".
Third placed Donie O'Sullivan admitted that he made
slightly the wrong tyre choice for the first 2 stages, too
soft a compound for the conditions.
Austin MacHale in 4th said "We drove fairly hard,
it's a good pace. The car seems fine but maybe the engine
doesn't seem to be lifting, I'm waiting a bit between the
gears". A pleasant surprise has been the
performance of Eamonn Boland, out for the first time in a
Mitsubishi WRC, Eamonn saying "Not too bad, a good
bit of fine tuning to do". JJ Fleming rounds
off the top half dozen. The Galway man is not
entirely happy however, his Impreza electronic gearbox
control starting to play up once again.
As can be seen above Alan Ring is leading Group N in his
Subaru Impreza from Willie Fannin. Some of the earlier
front runners had minor problems. Garry Jennings' car lost
turbo boost through stages 2 and 3 when an intercooler
pipe came loose. Dessie Keenan had a small excursion into
a field on stage 2, and narrowly avoided a big rock that
took the wind out of his sails for a while.
Further stories from the leaderboard include: Liam
McCarthy told us that his Corolla WRC's water pressure
injection system is still playing up. Denis Cronin
reported "Not really flowing right, had a little bit
of trouble getting the gears in Kilmacillogue".
Tom Holton had an intercom problem on the first stage, and
then a sensor to the water pressure system played up and
the engine went into "safe" mode. Dave Randles
went over Molls Gap more or less on 3 cylinders in his
Nissan Almera, a change of plugs has sorted that. Just
outside the above leaderboard - George Treacy is on a time
of 21.24 in the new Peugeot. Tim McNulty is on 26.30
following his stage 1 puncture. Pete Doughty has his
Escort WRC rear diff fixed and is now on a total of 22.17.
Ollie O'Donovan is still in pain from his broken ribs is
on 21.34. George Cullen 21.19. Barry Coleman 21.37. Aaron
MacHale is coming back into the gpN picture on on 21.34.
James O'Sullivan in the 023 Tiles car 21.54, and still
sorting suspension. Dessie Keenan 21.39. Kieran
O'Callaghan 21.32.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
www.rallynews.net
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