UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 13

1^st (2) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.43.01.8

2^nd (1) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.43.31.0

3^rd (3) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Fabia WRC) 1.45.03.7

4^th (8) Peadar Hurson/Glenn Patterson (Impreza WRC) 1.45.39.5

5^th (4) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 1.46.03.0

6^th (5) Tim McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 1.46.53.5

7^th (15) Gareth MacHale/Paul Nagle (Corolla WRC) 1.47.47.4

8^th (25) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 1.49.22.5

9^th (23) Garry Jennings/James O'Brien (Lancer N) 1.50.18.5

10^th (21) Seamus Leonard/Gerry McVeigh (Lancer N) 1.50.28.2     

Stage 13 Eglish turned out to be a major watershed in the battle for the lead as Austin MacHale had a time consuming spin and dropped well over 20s to allow Eugene Donnelly’s Corolla a touch of clear air at the front.  Derek McGarrity in 3^rd continues to set good times despite his Skoda Fabia having a worsening clutch problem. 

Eugene Donnelly commented here at service. “We’ve been going well, but something just hasn’t been clicking. There are a couple of places where I started to doubt myself, but I think it is probably just down to the very slippy conditions. You could get caught out very handy”.  A very dejected Austin MacHale said. “It was a 4^th 5^th left hand corner, there was mud right across the road, couldn’t see it until you were on it, no chance, the car spun away up and I had to turn and come back”.  We reported on o9ur last rally news that Austin and Eugene were tying after stage 11, but in fact we were mistaken, and Austin was leading by 2s, then Donnelly got ahead by 3 after stage 12. Peadar Hurson in 4^th reports all well with his car but he is making no impression on McGarrity in front as regards stage times. Eamonn Boland and Tim McNulty in 5^th and 6^th reported all well. Gareth MacHale had a good run through stage 13, 3s faster than McNulty a couple of second sup on Boland.  Denis Cronin was in 9^th place but his Impreza has been in the wars, and besides body damage, suffered a puncture. Denis losing several mnutes. 

In Group NColm Murphy continues to lead but Garry Jennings has upped his pace and moved into 2^nd, ahead of Seamus Leonard. Willie Fannin was 4^th gpN but he has crashed out on stage 13.  There was trouble for another gpN runner – Roy White was well down the order but still setting good times in his Lancer, but has now reportedly stopped at the end of stage 11 when a fuel pipe came adrift and caused a conflagration.  Paul Dempsey was another of the gpN drivers to lose a mountain of time yesterday and he is struggling to get back up today, but a spin on stage 10 didn’t help, and as well as that Paul is finding the distinct lack of grip sapping his confidence.

Drivers just outside the leaderboard include local man Daragh Raftery who had a small overshoot this morning in his Impreza WRC, but he has been picking up the pace well otherwise.  Alan Nesbitt  is also speeding up as he gets more accustomed to his new gpN Impreza. Tony Davies dropped several minutes in stage 13 with yet another puncture. Tony told us that he never gets punctures but on this rally he has had a succession of them. Paddy White has at last got the transmission sorted on his Impreza WRC, and although he is well down the classification, set a time through 13 which would be the equivalent of around about 7^th or 8^th overall. Aaron MacHale is cruising along just inside the top 20, Aaron stopped to change a puncture in a stage yesterday, got going but then came upon Kevin O’Donoghue’s accident and lost another 5 minutes while he got the news through to mid point radio.  More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net