RALLY NEWS NO.4 Lurgan Park/Saturday/1.45

1^st (6) Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 7.07.6

2^nd (2) Mark Higgins/Michael Gibson (Accent WRC) 7.08.3

3^rd (1) Jonny Milner/Shelley Rogerson (Octavia WRC) 7.11.3

4^th (10) Denis Biggerstaff/Robin McCandless (Metro 6R4) 7.17.3

5^th (14) Kevin Barrett/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 7.18.1

6^th (20) James Gillen/Rodney Johnston (Impreza WRC) 7.18.3

7^th (15) Daniel Doherty/Kevin McGowan (Impreza WRC) 7.20.9

8^th (11) Glenn Allen/Kieran McCracken (Escort WRC) 7.23.2

9^th (8) Maurice Gass/Andrew Cullen (Impreza WRC) 7.25.7

10^th (22) Ollie O'Donovan/Ed Synan (Impreza WRC) 7.26.5

After 4 stages of this Triton Showers Lurgan Park Rally we have a new leader in the shape of Kevin Lynch and his Subaru. Mark Higgins led for the first 3 stages, had a very slight overshoot going on to the gravel in stage 4, which cost maybe a second or two, but which cannot fully be given as the reason for Lynch moving into the lead. The Dungiven man is quite simply going at one enormous pace. He commented after stage 4. "Its fingers crossed. There is a long way to go, a lot can happen". Jonny Milner had a better run that time, and he said. "I can see a line through the gravel, better surface, it went well." Mark Higgins said of his overshoot. "I thought before the stage I had better pull my finger out, but unfortunately I pulled it out too far!"

There has also been a change just outside the battle of the top 3 with Denis Biggerstaff having a superb run to just slip ahead of Kevin Barrett. Biggerstaff did finish the stage with his Metro 6R4 fairly well creased down one side, evidence of some very hard driving through the chicanes. Triton Showers man Barrett felt he had gone well, but at the same time he has very little experience of gravel stages. Also in a Triton Showers Subaru is Niall Maguire, he admits he forgot to put the car in gear in stage 3, otherwise not doingbad for a man with a broken toe! Biggerstaff said that his run felt better, that he was carrying the speed well.

News of a retirement is that Neil McCance has pulled out, his co driver Liz Calvert took sick. We mentioned on the last RallyNews that Martin Elliott was having trouble with his Corsa throttle. Didn’t see any sign of him at the end of stage 4, nor Barry Mckenna (Escort.

In Group N Dickie Curran continues to lead, but he wasn’t fastest that time, that honour going to Raymond Johnson who was 2s up on Dickie. Johnson had that bit of a stage 2 problem when the power steering sprung a leak, his Lancer 8.5 is also just out of the box so he is on a bit of a learning curve. However despite losing that 10s he is still going to try to win group N. Another side issue in the gpN race is that if Michael Curran beats his dad Dickie today, Dickie has to pay for a rally in a Skoda WRC for Michael!!

In the 2 wheel drive race Keith White is still the man to beat and is 11^th overall in his rear wheel drive Escort. Mark Doyle is 2^nd in his Peugeot and then its Camillus Bradley closely followed by Rodney White, then Dessie Keenan.

Further stories include – Daniel Doherty having a much better run over the gravel that time although still 2s down on James Gillen in 6^th. Gillen is having a really good run. Despite being well down the leaderboard following his jump start penalty Neale Dougan continues to set top 6 times. Garry Jennings remarked that his Impreza N seemed to be clogging itself up, not pulling cleanly. Its all a bit academic now as Garry seems to have incurred a 1m penalty. Dickie Curran ran that stage on slicks, reckons there is going to be rain later on today, and he is saving his intermediates. Here’s hoping he’s got that completely wrong! More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net