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RALLY NEWS NO.5
Service/Macroom/Saturday 3.15
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 Cool Mountain
1st
(4) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 51.40
2nd
(2) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 52.02
3rd
(1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 52.09
4th
(6) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 52.28
5th
(7) Pieter Tsjoen/Eddy Chevaillier (Corolla WRC) 53.08
6th
(5) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 53.47
7th
(8) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 53.57
8th
(11) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (Impreza WRC) 54.10
9th
(18) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 55.24
10th (15) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Lancer
N) 56.07
Tim McNulty was fastest through stage 5 and then Eugene
Donnelly was fastest through stage 6. In stage 5
McGarrity was just 1s slower than McNulty and in stage 6
he was equal to McNulty. That’s how close it is at the
top of this Murphy Construction Cork 20. There are just
seconds covering the top drivers, but Tim McNulty pulled
out that early advantage and he’s doing well to hold on to
it. Tim is not panicking. He admitted that he could have
picked a slightly better Pirelli tyre for the last 2
stages. However its swings and roundabouts, McGarrity is
also on Pirellis and he said that in the wet and dry
conditions no matter what tyre you pick it is a bit of a
compromise.
Eugene Donnelly said of that stage 6. “It was absolutely
brilliant, the last 3 miles, flying over those big crests,
so special”. Tim McNulty commented. “It could have been
better of course but I’m happy enough”. Belgian driver
Pieter Tjsoen said “I’m trying to improve, it is not
easy”. Austin MacHale reported no problems while Liam
McCarthy in 7th is losing ground, co driver and
rally sponsor Kieran Murphy saying. “The car seems to be
losing power, maybe the turbo is going, there’s smoke
blowing at the end of stages. We’ll try and change the
turbo now”.
Denis Cronin in 8th place told us that on
Friday, before the rally, he was so disgusted and fed up
with the car that he was ready to call it a day and not do
the rally. However Denis talked to Melvyn Evans who
advised him to raise the back of the car up, and Denis
says it has made all the difference, it feels so much
better.
Colm Murphy is hanging on to 9th and continues
to lead group N in his Impreza, Colm still suffering from
an attack of shingles, still taking the medication and
drinking lots of water, and says that on the road sections
he feels absolutely tired out, but on the stages he
forgets about it. When Garry Jennings came in he pointed
at co driver Rory Kennedy who was lost in thought, or so
it seemed. Rory had the head sets on and had somehow or
other managed to get the football commentary through the
headsets! Apart from that, Garry said he found that stage
6 to be very tricky, but although he was a bit slower than
Colm Murphy Garry is still on course on take the Pirelli
Tarmac Group N crown. His main rival for that honour, the
flu stricken Alan Nesbitt, has managed to get his Impreza
back on the pace after earlier clutch and gearbox
troubles. Alan is running a standard gearbox in the car
now and is setting good times, but is almost 3m back on
Jennings.
James O’Sullivan set a good group N time through stage 6
but he also lost time earlier on and he feels now that
although the times are quite good they could be better,
and he thinks the fuel pump isn’t quite right. Aaron
MacHale is 3rd group N, just 27s behind
Jennings and ahead of James Foley, Aaron having a good run
to date. Stuart Darcy arrived in to service with his
Lancer steering column hanging out by the roots, otherwise
his times were good. Tadgh Linehan of Bio-Tech has come
into the top 20 and indeed the group N reckoning, Tadgh
saying he’s taking no chances and looking forward to
tomorrow when he is going on to home territory. Brian
O’Mahony is running back in the order in his Puma S1600
but he’s been shotting up the results as well and is
leading his class, despite catching other competitors in
the stages and running the wrong tyres. Eddy Garry has
been having some brake problems with his Subaru, it looks
as if a rear wheel bearing has gone allowing massive brake
pad knock, and then the brade pedal goes to the floor.
Kevin O’Donoghue’s Lancer broke a drive shaft in stage 4
and he dropped over 3 minutes.
Keith Power’s Puma broke a rear shock absorber earlier on
and he had to do 2 stages with the car behaving like a
boat and now he is running with 1 forest shock and 1
tarmac one. Brendan Murphy’s red gpN Impreza has just
arrived into service with 2 broken rear driveshafts. Allen
Tracey’s Corolla is leading the class in the National part
of the rally and as he says himself, “With a lot of
frights”. John Dalton is leading the National from Paul
Purtil with Edward O’Callaghan in the Manta 3rd.
In the Ka Motions part of the rally Sharon Power was
leading after 4 stages by 3s from Mark Buckley with Colm
Forde 3rd despite gearbox troubles. Buckley
changed his suspension set up and was closing in on
Sharon.
Class leaders in the main rally after stage 4 included
Brendan Cumiskey in his Civic and Dave Randles in his
Almera. Belgian driver Tim Van Parijs has retired his gpA
Lancer in stage 6 – the car is parked at the side of the
road in Cool Mountain seemingly with mechanical damage.
Jonathan Patterson & Jeremy Taylor are going well in their
Raymond Mason Group N Impreza but report that they were
held up briefly behind the new S1600 Fiesta of David
Delaney that had crashed into a wall. More news later.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
www.rallynews.net
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