RALLY NEWS NO.4                     Oldcastle/Sunday  6.15
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 3 (last stage)
1st (2) Sean Gallagher/Claire Gallagher (Esc.Cos) 29.22.1
2nd (5) Dominic Loughran/Michael Courtney (Lancer N) 29.34.1
3rd (9) Paul McEnroe/Alan Keenan (Lancer N) 29.34.2
4th (10) Joe Curran/Martin McGarrity (Impreza N) 29.40.4
5th (11) Martin Brady/Barry Sheridan (Esc.Cos) 29.44.5
6th (8) Michael Curran/Mark McNally (Escort) 29.56.3
7th (18) Andrew Browne/Teresa Mulvaney (Impreza N) 30.02.9
8th (17) John Kelly/Robbie Shaw (Lancer N) 30.33.6
9th (4) Enda Keenan/Laura Moffett (Escort) 30.33.9
10th (7) Ollie O'Reilly/Martin Cahill (Escort) 30.34.8

Sean Gallagher, co driven by his 22 year old daughter Claire, had a brilliant run here today to claim victory in very difficult conditions. For Sean it was his 3rd outright rally victory. He took the spoils on the Banna Beach and Midland events as well, but for Claire it was her first win. Sean remarked at the finish. "it was an enjoyable day despite the weather, and it was very slippery. I had an overshoot on the 2nd stage which shook me a bit but otherwise OK."  The battle for 2nd place was pretty heroic, with Dominic Loughran giving it his all on the last stage to just pip his fellow Lancer pilot Paul McEnroe by just .1 of a second.  It was pretty close stuff, McEnroe led by .6 of a second going into that waterlogged final test.  Loughran commented "We had a real good run".  McEnroe said. "We couldn't have done any better". 

In the battle for Mk2 Escort supremacy Michael Curran was absolutely outstanding and set fastest times overall through the 2nd and 3rd stages in his bright green example. Enda Keenan had a steady run towards the end to take 9th overall in his black and white example.

Further stories towards the end included - No.3 seed Paul McCann changing to a different tyre to his Escort Cosworth for the final stage, and at last set a good time.  Ollie O'Reilly just scraped into the top 10 in his class 13 Escort, and that was despite a spin at the last hairpin of the final stage when the handbrake stuck on. Garret McCullagh dropped right out of the picture towards the end when his Escort had gearbox trouble. Martin Brady lost time when his Escort Cosworth continued to have a misfire, dropping him from 4th to 5th. Gerry Maher had a spin on the last stage. John Kelly started to come to grips with his new Lancer, getting the suspension more to his liking, and moved from10th to 8th. Gerry Kelly in the black Civic dropped back, his brakes were all wrong and he had a spin on virtually every junction on the last stage. Andrew Browne had a good run in his GpN Impreza, it was his first time in left hand drive, lost a bit of time when he had a coming together with a Mk2 Escort in the stage. It is too soon to confirm any of the class places, but in the new Irish Peugeot 205 Challenge Adrian McBride was the pace setter after 2 stages, 17s up on Niall O'Connell with Seamus O'Grady 3rd.
Finally for now, well down to new CoC Martin and his team for running such a good event in difficult conditions. Thanks to the Old Castle House Hotel for all their help, to John Carter for sponsoring the RallyNews and to all who helped….BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net