RALLY NEWS NO.6                            Ballymena finish - Saturday 5.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 10 (LAST STAGE)
1ST (3) Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 30.58
2nd (2) Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Impreza WRC) 31.13
3rd (14) Raymond Johnson/Richard Bell (Lancer N) 32.35
4th (11) Seamus Donnelly/Billy McCullins (Lancer N) 32.51
5th (5) Denis Biggerstaff/Damien McCann (Impreza WRC) 32.53
6th (4) Kieran Shaw/Crawford Henderson (Impreza WRC) 33.12
7th (12) Michael Curran/Fabian McShane (Lancer N) 33.12
8th (9) Adrian McElvaney/Paul Kelly (Impreza WRC) 33.17
9th (22) Sean Devine/Killian Duffy (Impreza N) 33.19
10th (15) Raymond Mason/Peter Martin (Lancer N) 33.31

For Kevin Lynch and co driver Francis Regan this has been a brilliant victory here on this Toshiba Rally, the icing on the cake for Kevin is winning the Northern Ireland Stage Championship.  When Kevin's KPL Subaru Impreza crossed the finish arch here at the County Hall, it marked his 18th rally win of the year, and his 2nd major championship win. Not bad for a man who has only been rallying for a couple of years. By coincidence, as well as being his 18th victory, it is also his wedding anniversary today, having been married to Bried for 18th years!    Kevin commented at stage finish. "We were under a lot of pressure, I didn't want to drive all year and lose the championship by doing something silly, but I wanted to beat Derek McGarrity on his home stages. I'm more than happy. It was a fair hectic pace today, we maybe took some risks, but I wanted to keep Derek under control. The weather conditions were bad as well, but everything worked out well."

Derek McGarrity was just glad to get his Subaru back all in one piece. He managed to get the damaged drive shaft popped back into place after the Ballypatrick stage, and equalled Lynch's time through the final test over Slieveanorra.  Many drivers reported major moments on some of the jumps in Slieveanorra 2nd time through. Kevin Lynch's co driver Francis Regan said. "There was a 4 left towards the end, and there was a big hole on the inside, we went right into it and up into the air, it could have been all over."  John McKeown's co-driver, his wife Mandy, reported that they hit a bump near the end of Slieveanorra, and she thought they were going to take off like an aeroplane. Several drivers nearby overheard her, and agreed that they also had huge moments towards the end.

Kieran Shaw led the championship starting today, but he had all sorts of transmission troubles which kept him right out of the picture, that slowed him particularly in the first half of the rally. He tightened up the differentials and changed the tyres on his KBB Doors Subaru, and it seemed to make it a bit better, but still not fantastic. It was a disappointing day for Kieran. Unofficially, we think that Crawford Henderson could have won the championship co-driver title.

Raymond Johnson turned in a brilliant performance to win Group N and finish 3rd overall.  Seamus Donnelly was 2nd GpN, 4th overall and wins GpN on the championship.  Young Michael Curran gave Seamus a good run for his money in championship terms, but had to be content with runner up spot. Denis Biggerstaff finished 5th overall after a good day, still learning his Subaru.  Michael Curran was 7th. Adrian McElvaney 8th, a good run for the Monaghan man, not having had any reconnaissance.  Sean Devine 9th having slowed slightly in the rough conditions this afternoon.  Eugene Donnelly/John Conway finished outside the leaderboard on 34.48. Maurice Gass was also just outside leaderboard on 33.58, as was Jonny McKenna (34.22). Jonny just glad to get the car home. It was a tough, hard day's rallying, with many retirements, but the competitors seemed to really enjoy it, well done to Michael Johnston and all at the MAMC for all their hard work.

Thanks as well to all who helped and supported the RallyNews service. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON  www.rallynews.net