RALLY NEWS NO.7
Killorglin Service/Sunday 11 am
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 9 MOLLS GAP
1st (1) Andrew Nesbitt/James
O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 1.19.27
2nd (3) Eugene Donnelly/Paul
Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.20.03
3rd (9) Kevin Lynch/Gordon
Noble (Impreza WRC) 1.20.32
4th (2) Derek McGarrity/Dermot
O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.20.50
5th (6) Eamonn Boland/Francis
Regan (Impreza WRC) 1.20.52
6th (4) Austin MacHale/Brian
Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.21.55
7th (7) Tim McNulty/Eugene
O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 1.22.18
8th (8) Denis Cronin/Helen
O'Sullivan (Impreza WRC) 1.24.21
9th (28) Colm Murphy/Ger
Loughrey (Impreza N) 1.25.55
10th (21) Tommy Graham/Anthony
Nestor (Impreza WRC) 1.25.57
Wet slippy conditions greeted the drivers as they
tackled the opening stage Molls Gap on this 2nd day of the
Gleneagle Rally of the Lakes. Kevin Lynch powered his Subaru to fastest with a
time of 7.59. Eugene Donnelly was 2nd fastest with 8.05. Nesbitt 3rd
quickest on 8.11. Austin MacHale 4th fastest on 8.12. Then it was
Boland on 8.17. Derek McGarrity was back on 8.20. Lynch’s fastest time moved
him from an overnight 4th to 3rd. Just outside the
leaderboard Terry McGonigle has come from a start position of 80 to be 2nd
Group N and 11th overall. George Cullen in the Skoda is 12th.
Alan Ring 13th and 3rd gpN in his Munster Joinery
Impreza. Tom Randles 14th in his Celica. West Cork GpN winner
Kevin Kelleher had the fastest gpN time this morning and is 15th
overall, 4th Group N. Derek McGarrity reported his engine
to be down on power and the engineers cannot find out exactly what the
problems is.
Phil Collins continues to lead the National part of the rally despite
a big moment at Fisher’s Bridge. Dessie Keenan was slightly faster than Phil
over the Gap and holds 2nd in the Nationals with Willie Power still
3rd despite some intercom problems. Colin McRae is still going
following some overnight gearbox adjustments but he was held up a little on
the Gap and we were unable to get a time for him.
Overnight class leaders included young Peter Wilson in his Honda Civic
leading class 2. Brendan Cumiskey in his Civic leading class 3. Brian
O’Mahony leads class 6 from the similar Puma of Ken O’Neill. Andrew Stewart
leads class 5 in his Suzuki Swift. Guy Woodcock leads class 7 from Dave
Randles in his Almera. Guy was hoping to get the gearbox of his RS2000 Maxi
fixed before Molls Gap this morning.
Further retirements from the international part
of the rally included Willie Fannin. Willie did finish the Saturday leg but
there was a fair bit of body damage to his Group N Impreza and the car wasn’t
handling very well, so he decided not to restart this morning. Part of
willie’s problem yesterday was hitting a pole and bringing down some power
lines. Eoin Doyle’s Impreza clattered into the debris and was forced into
retirement. Garry Jennings got going after his Gortnagane accident, but then
was forced out when his lancer head gasket blew. Alan Nesbitt had been having
problems throughout day 1 with his GpN Impreza, and he didn’t put the car into
parc ferme last night. It was the same story with Tom Halliday, his Escort
engine seeming to be off song from the start, and he also withdrew.
Phil Collins/Diarmuid Falvey led the National part of the rally
overnight from Dessie Keenan, both in Escorts. Willie Power held on to 3rd
place despite gearbox problems with his Darrian. Peter Kelly was 4th
in his Escort and Kieran O’Neill 5th in his Kadett. Kieran’s car
was leaking oil from the back of the gearbox, he managed to get a seal from
John Moynihan last night and hoped to get it fitted this morning. Charlie
Hickey made up the top 6 with his Escort.
Some of the class leaders in the National included Lloyd Hutchinson in
his Mini. Philip Cross (Escort). Eddie Power (Clio Kit Car). Walter Dick in
his Escort. John Riordan also in an Escort. Conor Cavanagh in his Escort
Cosworth. Interestingly Greg McCarthy held on to 2nd in class in
his Nova despite running last on the road for much of the rally following a
massive episode of broken rockers and road side repairs.
In the Historic section of the rally Don Moynihan led class 2 with his
Escort. Mike Doody led cl.1 in his Mini. Mervyn Johnston class B2 in his Mini
Cooper. Niall Creighton cl.B3 in his Lotus Cortina. Eddie Cronin cl.B1 in
another Mini.
In Sardinia world championship rally Loeb still
leads from Solberg with Gronholm somehow or another 3rd. In the
Junior WRC Sordo leads in the Citroen from Aava and Kris Meeke/Chris Patterson
have got back into 3rd despite crashing on the last stage
yesterday. Under the new Super Rally rules in the WRC they were allowed to
rejoin having taken a penalty.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ 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).
