UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2 Kilmurry

1^st (4) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 17.54

2^nd (2) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 18.11

3^rd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 18.14

4^th (6) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 18.15

5^th (7) Pieter Tsjoen/Eddy Chevaillier (Corolla WRC) 18.36

6^th (8) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 18.50

7^th (11) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (Impreza WRC) 19.11

8^th (5) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 19.13

9^th (18) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 19.19

10^th (15) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 19.30

11^th (10) Erik Wevers/Michiel Poel (Corolla WRC) 19.31

12^th (29) James Foley/Lisa Roe (Lancer N) 19.41

Tim McNulty repeated his opening stage fastest time with another brilliant run through the 2^nd stage to be quickest again.  Amazingly Tim got to the stage finish saying. “No brakes, I thought I had lost a lot of time”.  Derek McGarrity was 2^nd fastest through stage 2, 8s slower than McNulty, then it was Boland a further 2s back, Donnelly a further 2s back and then Pieter Tsjoen a further 4s back.  Eugene Donnelly commented. “I found it brutally slippy, we were nearly off several times”.  Derek McGarrity just commented that it had gone well.  Eamonn Boland also seemed fairly happy, while Belgian visitor Pieter Tsjoen, fresh from winning the Tour of Luxembourg, remarked that his Corolla engine “software” wasn’t quite right for the first stage but it had been better on stage 2. 

Austin MacHale is on a total 19.13 having suffered a puncture on the first stage and then an overshoot on the 2^nd.  Liam McCarthy had a very good run through both stages, Liam happy enough so far.  Donal O’Donovan didn’t appear here after stage 2, reason unknown. Denis Cronin recovered from his first stage spin to set a pretty respectable time on the 2^nd stage.

In Group N, despite suffering from a touch of shingles and feeling very tired, Colm Murphy has set the roads alight so far. Garry Jennings is 2^nd group N and trying not to take too many chances on his first run in the Evo 8.  James Foley is on 19.42 and says the new Evo 9 is very hard to get used to, the engine revs are very hard to judge. Alan Nesbitt is way back on 20.56, there is oil pissing on to the clutch and the car is going nowhere. 023 Tiles man James O’Sullivan is also well off the pace on 20.45, his Lancer missing it’s differential pump which is going to be fitted here at service.  Alan Ring’s group N Impreza is off the road on a long 5 left 5 right over shiny tar.  Fergal Allen put his BMW off the road for 5 minutes. David James went off as well in his Escort. Peter Wilson has been losing time catching cars and also had an overshoot.  Paddy White lost time at the start of the first stage where the officials insisted on balaclavas being worn which caught out a few drivers.

In Japan WRC Solberg is leading with Gronholm 2^nd and Loeb 3^rd. Sola has rolled out of the Super 1600.

More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net

*For LIVE SMS results - Irish Mobiles text RALLY ITC 53053. Messages cost 30 cents. For UK mobiles text RALLY ITC to 60066. Messages cost 25p