RALLY NEWS NO.2 End of Slieveanorra/Saturday 11.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 1
1st (6) Sean Devine/Damien Duffy (Impreza WRC) 8.27
2nd (23) Trevor Moore/Glenn Campbell (Escort) 8.30
3rd (2) Raymond Johnson/Richard Bell (Impreza WRC) 8.34
4th (9) JOhn McGlaughlin/David McElroy (Lancer N) 8.36
5th (17) John Donnelly/Oran Donnelly (Escort WRC) 8.37
6th (1) Craig & Rodger Bennett (Focus WRC) 8.38
7th (3) Kieran Shaw/Crawford Henderson (Lancer WRC) 8.41
8th (21) Andy Magee/Andy Hamilton (Escort) 8.43
9th (8) Neil McCance/Sean Ferris (Lancer N) 8.44
(11) Peter McCullagh/Alan Dolan (Lancer N) 8.44

Conditions were tough enough over the top of Slieveanorra, streaming wet roads and mist in places. First over the stage was Craig Bennett in his Focus WRC and he observed. “It was very slippy and foggy, not easy”. Fastest man was Sean Devine, although he was very unhappy with the handling of his Impreza WRC, said it was all over the road, even diving about on the straights, and he couldn’t quite believe that he was fastest of the early times.

The most stunning run of all amongst the early drivers was Trevor Moore in his Mk2 Escort. Trevor arrived at the flying finish of the stage, a long k right, with his red Escort completely sideways, full of the rack, engine revs through the sky. Believe it or note despite that fastest time Trevor’s gearbox gave trouble through the stage and there was no 5th gear at stage finish.

Third placed Raymond Johnson reported a stall at an uphill hairpin in his Impreza WRC. John McGlaughlin in 4th was fastest of the group N cars, John’s Lancer sporting a smashed front left corner, loads of straw and dirt telling the story of a collision with a chicane. He said the car was handling OK for the rest of the stage but the constant rubbing noise disturbed his concentration a little.

A big talking point today is of course the race for the NI Group N championship. Neil McCance is the favourite but he has to get the car to the finish. Neil said after Slieveanorra. “We definitely felt we could be going harder but we kept it neat and tidy, looks OK”. Fifth fastest was John Donnelly, he is seeded back at 17 but had a great run in his Escort WRC.

Kieran Shaw in 7th reported that his Lancer WRC wouldn’t go into gear at a couple of the junctions, 1st gear mostly, and he stalled the engine. When the KBB Doors car finished the stage there were lots of flashing lights in the dash read out, all seemed to refer to the transmission, but it was hard to make sense out of it. Andy Magee in 8th had a good run to be 2nd fastest of the Mk2 Escorts just ahead of Alistair Cochrane who had a time of 8.52, while Mark Barnett had a time of 8.55.

Not so happy was Declan McNaughton, his Escort well off the road on the moorland, looked like no damage but well stuck. Others in trouble included John McKeown who went off the road on a downhill hairpin after the mast. There was no damage but his lovely Escort Cosworth was beached for 3 minutes. Martin Elliott had overheating brake problems but otherwise OK. Kieran Graffin went off on the first square right, slid straight on, but not too bad. James Kennedy had a straight on at a junction, lost a few seconds. Denis Heaney crashed his Corolla WRC, co driver Martin Brady sent us a text and said. “1 mile into Slieveanorra hit tree on inside of 5L into 6L – both OK. Another DNF!”
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net