RALLY NEWS NO.12
Service/Letterkenny/Saturday 7.20
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE
16 Garrygort
1st (1) Eugene
Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.33.41.8
2nd (7) Tim
McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 1.34.52.7
3rd (6) Eamonn
Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 1.34.59.2
4th (4) Austin MacHale/Brian
Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.36.11.9
5th (16) Kevin
Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 1.39.08.7
6th (2) Derek McGarrity/Dermot
O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.39.48.5
7th (11) Cathal Arthurs/John
McElhinney (Accent WRC) 1.40.19.8
8th (9) Steve Perez/Neil
Dashfield (Focus WRC) 1.40.31.3
9th (12) Gareth
Jones/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 1.40.41.0
10th (23) Garry
Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 1.41.28.7
Following a long hard day’s
rallying it is Eugene Donnelly and co driver Paul Kiely
who lead this Shell Donegal International Rally with 1
more day, 6 stages remaining. Eugene’s Corolla WRC was
looking decidedly tired when it arrived in here to
service, the joint Pirelli Tarmac Champion saying “We had
to back off over the last few stages, I think we’ve
cracked the rear differential and the gearbox seems very
tired. Derek McGeehan our engineer is going to change both
the units now, so hopefully we will be on full song for
tomorrow”. Second placed Tim McNulty brought his Pierse
backed Subaru in and said “We haven’t been on the limit, a
few wrong tyre choices, the Pirellis are working well,
everything’s fine”. Eamonn Boland in 3rd
reported all well in his camp, while Austin MacHale in 4th
told of his Focus WRC stalling in stage 16 and losing a
few seconds. But was fastest over stage 15 Knockalla,
although Austin found it a wee bit slippy.
Kevin Barrett had a good run
through the afternoon stages to hold 5th, while
Derek McGarrity slipped to 6th place when a
wheel fell off his Impreza in Knockalla and cost him about
3 minutes. Derek was on a real charge after losing the
time earlier and did not need this set back at all. He
even contemplated not continuing, but he has the speed to
get back up the leaderboard if he has a good Sunday run.
Cathal Arthurs in 7th had some gearbox
troubles. Steve Perez in 8th reports all well
with his Vodka Kick Focus WRC, although Steve hasn’t quite
conquered the challenge of Knockalla, and his time was a
bit ordinary over that tough bit of road. Gareth Jones in
9th has settled down again after a few delays,
not really of his own making, and Garry Jennings rounds
off the top 10.
Garry and co driver Rory Kennedy
also lead the group N category. They finished this
afternoon stages with a pretty wonky gearbox and the unit
is being changed here at service for Sunday. Cathal Rogers
is provisionally 2nd group N and that is
despite gearbox troubles in his Lancer. Other group N
drivers in the picture include Alan Nesbitt and Frank
Wray. Aaron MacHale slipped back over the last couple of
stages having picked too hard a compound tyre which cost
some time.
A few other times include – Denis
Biggerstaff on a total of 1.41.54.4, going a lot better
now that he has changed the gearbox. Maurice Gass isn’t
too far away, his total in the Skoda 1.42.02.7.
More news in the morning. BRIAN
& LIZ PATTERSON
www.rallynews.net
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