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RALLY
NEWS NO.3
Service/Sunday 2.30
UNOFFICIAL
LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4
Morgan’s
Lake
1st
(3) Charlie Donnelly/Paddy Toner (Corolla WRC) 35.27
2nd
(2) Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Focus WRC) 35.42
3rd
(5) Niall Maguire/Paul McLoughlin (Impreza WRC) 36.22
4th
(11) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 36.55
5th
(8) Kevin Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 37.08
6th
(10) Michael Curran/Fabian McShane (Lancer N) 37.08
7th
(36) Martin Doherty/Sean Moriarty (Impreza WRC) 37.44
8th
(12) Alan Ring/Derek Brannigan (Impreza N) 37.45
9th
(9) Tommy Graham/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 38.18
10th
(133) Noel McCarrick/Eugene O’Donnell (Impreza WRC) 38.25
Out
at the front of the rally Charlie Donnelly set the pace through
stages 2 and 3 . Indeed
Charlie was so quick through that 2nd stage, Ruan, that
he beat the “bogey” time. He
wasn’t too happy when he arrived in here to service, saying. “We
sat at the start of that last stage, stage 4, for nearly an hour.
I’m on hard compound tyres anyway and it meant they were
stone cold starting the stage, it wasn’t nice”.
Interestingly, on that 4th stage Ray Breen was
faster by 1s. Breen
said. “I’m not trying to push too hard, keep a steady pace,
Charlie on average has been half a second a mile quicker, but
that’s OK, I’m just thinking of the Dunlop points and keeping
ahead of Niall Maguire. We had no intercom for the 2nd
stage, but we got it sorted, it was a problem with the helmet”.
Major
retirements over the last loop of stages include – Kenny
McKinstry, Paul Harris and Noel Redmond.
Harris unfortunately crashed very heavily in the Ruan stage.
Paul and his co driver Donal Barrett were happily unhurt.
Both Noel Redmond and Kevin Barrett stopped to make sure they
were OK.
Redmond
has since retired his Impreza with mechanical trouble. Kevin Barrett
will be compensated for his time loss.
Kenny McKinstry’s Subaru went on to 3 cylinders in stage 3
and with the memory of Andrew Nesbitt’s Ulster blow up fresh in
his mind, Kenny thought it best to pull in and check the engine. In
transpired that the problem was simply a damaged wire to a coil.
It took Kenny a while to ascertain and he thought it was too
late to continue.
Niall
Maguire was 3rd fastest through stage 4, just a second
down on Charlie Donnelly and 2 s down on Breen, which is something
like a return of his old form for the outgoing National champions.
Kevin Barrett had a good run as did Michael Curran, although
Colm Murphy has now edged ahead in the overall race for group N.
That doesn’t worry Curran too much as he is concentrating
on championship points. Alan
Ring speeded up over stages 3 and 4 and is coming on to Curran’s
pace. Willie Fannin was
held up behind Noel McCarrick but it looks as if Willie be be
compensated for the blockage. McCarrick’s
Subaru had a massive spin and ended up partly on top of a hedge.
Co driver Eugene O’Donnell got out of the car and waved
down Fannin. McCarrick
then got going and left Fannin fuming!
Stuart
Darcy has set a couple of competitive times in his Group N Lancer
but he is thinking of pulling out of the rally as he has a front
left wheel bearing gone. Tommy Graham lost a fair bit of time in
stage 4 when his Impreza suffered a front left puncture. When we
spoke to Tommy here at service, co driver Sean Mullally leaned over
and said to us. “Would you tell Tommy that when I say don’t cut
it means don’t cut!!”
Daragh Raftery has retired his Civic, co driver Mark Kane
telling us “After a series of bumps on a straight the car just
hopped on top of a wall – I think there was something wrong with
the suspension. Paul Kiely
is out in a new group N Lancer today, he was blocked on the first
stage by someone else’s accident and we are waiting for his times
for stages 3 and 4.
More
news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
(with
thanks to Jack Keane for the tea!)
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