UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 14 CARN HILL
1st
(1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.17.28.3
2nd
(6) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 1.18.44.8
3rd
(7) Tim McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 1.18.44.9
4th
(4) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.19.59.0
5th
(2) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.20.40.0
6th
(11) Cathal Arthurs/John McElhinney (Accent WRC) 1.22.58.3
7th
(16) Kevin Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 1.23.01.3
8th
(9) Steve Perez/Neil Dashfield (Focus WRC) 1.23.28.8
9th
(12) Gareth Jones/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 1.24.08.4
10th
(23) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 1.24.16.2
11th
(18) Denis Biggerstaff/Sean Moriarty (Impreza WRC) 1.24.31.1
12th
(17) Maurice Gass/Andrew Cullen (Fabia WRC) 1.24.49.4
Following the drama with his Subaru transmission and running
late between stages 12 and 13, Derek McGarrity is now
running now the order slightly but was still fastest through
stage 14 and that was despite him having to face wet roads
and light rain, whereas the lead cars of Donnelly, McNulty,
Boland and MacHale had a fairly dry run. At stage finish
McGarrity reported that his car was going quite well, no
problems. Eugene Donnelly was a lot happier with his Corolla
WRC gear change, although he was still having a little bit
of trouble with 1st and 2nd gear,
leaving tight junctions. Overall Eugene said he was slightly
cautious. Tim McNulty picked too soft a compound tyre and
had a massive overshoot at one point, just skimming the RPM
television cameras and scaring the you know what out of
Pamela Ballantine!
It
was interesting that Eamonn Boland just squeezed ahead of
Tim McNulty, these two having a fabulous dice. Harking back
to McGarrity’s transmission trouble he reckons it could have
been self inflicted, he was going absolutely flat out over
Knockalla, and had caught a glimpse of Eugene Donnelly’s
Corolla in the distance. Took a heavily cautioned big jump
up at the church flat out and it was possibly the massive
crash landing that damaged the transmission. Malachy
Crawford, home for one of his regular visits from the US,
said he took that jump so high passing the church that he
thought he was going to speak to God!
Kevin Barrett continues his good run but blotted his copy
book slightly on stage 14 when he had a spin in the Triton
Showers Subaru. Denis Biggerstaff is back on the pace having
changed the gearbox in his Impreza. Cathal Rogers changed
the gearbox of his gpN Lancer also, switching on to a
standard one which is a bit slower, but probably more
reliable. Aaron MacHale had an overshoot at a square right
junction, Aaron lying just outside the above leaderboard and
still well in the gpN hunt. Also going well in the
production category is Alan Nesbitt. Although he did lose a
few seconds in stage 14 – Derek McGarrity started the stage
behind Alan and in his efforts not to hold Derek up Nesbitt
overshot a junction and had to reverse back. Then had
another overshoot at a downhill square left into a farm.
Looking back slightly – the reason for Paul Harris’
retirement was that the engine in his Subaru seized going
over the Brenagh stage. Talking to Kenny McKinstry he told
us that Andrew Nesbitt’s car isn’t too badly damaged. Mostly
it’s the front right hand corner indicating an understeering
accident, almost certainly down to cold tyres. John Dalton
spun his Darrian in stage 14, no damage. Colm Murphy’s
Impreza arrived in here to service following his accident in
Brenagh and the car looks like it has very little damage.
The
Junior section of the rally finished a little while ago and
Simon & Kelvin McElhinney were the winners in their Civic,
with Martin O’Donnell/Patrick McHugh also in a Honda 2nd
and Michael Gillespie/Cathal Sharkey 3rd in their
Escort.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (with thanks
to Michael Patterson)
www.rallynews.net * LIVE SMS RESULTS:
Text RALLY ITC to 53503 for Irish mobiles. Text RALLY ITC to
60066 for UK mobiles. (30cents Irl. 25p UK)
