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RALLY NEWS NO.8
Clones Service/Sunday 1.15
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 9
DRUMAVADDY
1st (1) Derek McGarrity/Dermot
O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 55.10.6
2nd (4) Andrew Nesbitt/James
O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 55.14.5
3rd (2) Eugene Donnelly/Paul
Kiely (Corolla WRC) 55.36.6
4th (5) Eamonn
Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 55.43.6
5th (7) Tim McNulty/Eugene
O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 56.26.1
6th (3) Austin MacHale/Brian
Murphy (Focus WRC) 56.38.8
7th (8) Kevin Lynch/Gordon
Noble (Impreza WRC) 56.48.4
8th (16) Sean Devine/James
McKee (Impreza WRC) 58.03.7
9th (57) Garry Jennings/Rory
Kennedy (Lancer N) 58.48.0
10th (58) Seamus
Leonard/Gerry McVeigh (Lancer N) 59.47.1
The first few times from the Drumavaddy
stage show Andrew Nesbitt fastest on 11m6s with Derek McGarrity 2nd
fastest on 11.12. Eamonn Boland on 11.13 and Kevin Lynch 4th
fastest on 11.19. Eugene Donnelly was next up on 11.20. Tim McNulty
and Austin MacHale a fair bit further back. Nesbitt is obviously on a
charge to try to regain the time lost at the chicane in stage 8.
Interestingly, Andrew was saying that his Impreza clutch had been
slipping after the barging about at the chicane. When he reached
service here at Clones the clutch had settled down again, the
McKinstry mechanics gave it no attention, concentrating instead on
making sure the bumper was secured. What the McKinstry boys did have
to work hard at though was changing the gearbox in Frank O’Mahony’s
Impreza WRC. Frank reported yesterday, not only gearbox trouble, but
also the engine overheating and going into safe mode.
Anyway, a couple of the McKinstry men
went up to Banbridge last night and pulled a gearbox unit out of
another car. They fitted it to Frank’s machine in around about 23
minutes this morning. Fair enough it was only a 20 minute service, so
there were a couple of minutes road penalties, but it was still a
fabulous job. (They also make a great cup of tea!) This means that
Frank can continue in the rally, and maintain the fund raising profile
for the Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin. There are
actually 4 cars involved in the fund raising. Frank himself, his son
Brian, who was lying 16th overall overnight in his Puma.
Frank’s daughter Emily who was 30th overnight in her
Impreza, plus Mick Cooper/Janette Gavigan in their Impreza. Mick &
Janette are out of the International but running in the National part
of the event now.
We reported on the last RallyNews that
Donagh Kelly was up to 3rd in group N, but it transpires
that his Lancer is in fact Group A, so Willie Fannin is 3rd
in his Impreza N. Kelly has dropped time in stage 9, his Lancer off
the road briefly, and he has slipped to 12th overall behind
Fannin. Alan Nesbitt is now 13th and 4th GpN.
Aaron MacHale 14th. Paddy White 15th. Brian
O’Mahony 16th. Peter Wilson 17th and leading his
class in his Civic. Conor McCloskey recovering from his stage 8
puncture, 18th. Michael McColgan 19th and
Raymond McLaughlin 20th. Willie John Dolan was 31st
overall overnight in his new Impreza N11, Willie John having a good
enough run, but his son Peter was feeding him up with the Viper juice
this morning to rev him up a bit!!
Earlier we said that Colm Murphy had
got caught out on the bumps in stage 8, his brother John has just told
us that what really happened was that the car ran out of fuel…oh
dear! Aisling Dooris is still going well, despite having hurt her
back when she fell off a truck on Thursday. Aising lying 36th
and leading class A5. Emma McKinstry continues to have a good run
and is just inside the top 30 in her gpN Lancer. Brendan Comiskey was
leading cl.3 overnight in his Civic. Brian Pat Doherty led cl.7 in his
Escort Maxi.
In the National section of the event,
Paul Gallagher in his Corolla was leading Paul Barrett in his Escort
after their first stage this morning, by just over 1s. Seamus
O’Connell was 3rd, Declan Naughon 4th, Colm
McFaul 5th and Harry Brown 6th.
On the Tipperary Forestry rally at
Mitchelstown Gareth MacHale was leading Adrian McElvaney by 6s after
the first stage, with John McCarthy 3rd a further 2s back.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ
PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
