RALLY NEWS NO.2 Service/Bunbeg/Saturday
1.15….and it’s cold, very
Wet…and windy!
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2 Ray
1st (18) James Cullen/Reba Graham (Lancer N)
19.06
2nd (2) Eugene Donnelly/Carl Moore (Corolla WRC)
19.30
3rd (9) Martin Doherty/Andrew Cullen (Impreza WRC)
19.36
4th (5) Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza
WRC) 19.39
5th (19) Eugene Ferry/John Gallagher (Escort)
19.56
6th (6) James Gillen/John McCafferty (Impreza)
19.59
7th (12) Damien Gallagher/Mac Walsh (Escort)
20.09
8th (8) Andrew Stewart/Fabian McShane (Lancer N)
20.13
9th (25) Stuart Darcy/Brian Boyle 9lancer N)
20.14
10th (23) Drew Hunter/Victor Hunter (Escort)
20.19
It would appear that it is James Cullen setting the pace on
this Donegal Harvest Rally, the previous Group N Tarmac Champion and
winner of the Donegal International a couple of times, absolutely
flying in his group N Lancer. James commented. “We’re trying very
hard, the roads are tricky”.
Eugene Donnelly brought his Corolla into service after stage
2 (stage 3 was cancelled because of a lack of man power) and said.
“We’re having deadly craic, Carl here is doing very well, we’re
having a lot of fun, although to be honest on the very fast stuff
it’s a bit hairy and I shouldn’t really be doing what I’m doing.
Pity we lost that stage 3, it was the best stage of the rally”.
Niall Maguire commented. “We’re doing a hundred per cent”.
James Gillen lost a wee bit of ground on that 2nd stage,
his Impreza front windscreen fogging up on the inside in the wet
conditions. Martin Doherty on the other hand had a good run, to
move from 4th to 3rd and the intercom problem
from earlier seemed to fix itself.
Andrew Stewart reported some slightly erratic handling with
his Lancer, otherwise OK. Ivan Stewart is really struggling with
this left hand drive Escort Cosworth and he’s losing time hand over
fist, total now 21.39 after 2 stages.
Brendan Kelly had a spin on the 2nd stage, his
time 10.45 as against Stuart Darcy’s 10.31 knocking Brendan out of
the leaderboard.
Damien Gallagher was up to 5th after the first
stage in his Mk2 Escort but had a slight overshoot at a square right
corner in stage 2 which cost a few seconds. Paul Gallagher & Karl
Reid are having their fair share of overshoots and spins, their
total at the moment 20.46. Robbie Peoples said “We had the mother
and father of all near shaves and got away with it”. Robbie’s total
20.22.
Maurice Moffett doesn’t like the wet weather anyway, has a
new engine in his Starlet and is spinning wheels all over the place.
Mark Alcorn in the Corolla twin cam had a great run through the 1st
stage but got blocked by someone else’s accident on the 2nd.
Michael McColgan in the Lancer reckoned he was just too cautious on
the first couple of stages. Stuart Darcy had a good run through the
first 2 stages, keeping his brain in gear and sitting nicely in the
top 10.
Trevor Lancashire crashed his Escort out on the first corner
of the first stage – oh dear!
More news later
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
