Rally News No.3 Sunday Service In Mountrath
1.30pm
Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Four
1st
(5) Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Focus WRC) 38.19
2nd
(1) Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 38.40
3rd
(166) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Impreza WRC) 38.48
4th
(4) Kevin Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 39.01
5th
(3) Noel Redmond/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 39.43
6th
(11) Alan Ring/Sean Moriarity (Impreza N) 40.08
7th
(23) Adrian Quinn/Alan Moran (Lancer N) 40.15
8th
(92) Kevin O’Donoghue/Joe O’Leary (Lancer N) 40.26
9th
(13) Tadhg Linehan/John Kearney (Impreza N) 40.42
10th
(18) Jack Sleator/Timmy England (Impreza N) 40.54
11th
(9) Peter Clifford/John Young (Lancer N) 40.56
12th
(42) Peter McCullough/Hugh McKenna (Lancer N) 41.00
Ray
Breen took two more fastest times over stages three and four to
extend his lead over Niall Maguire to 21 seconds. Breen reports no
problems in his Focus and was respectively seven seconds faster than
Liam McCarthy on stage three and four seconds quicker than him over
stage four. McCarthy is much happier was his pace but reckons that
Ray Breen is pretty much uncatchable today, but McCarthy has now
closed the gap down to reigning national champion Niall Maguire to
just eight seconds. Niall Maguire is very much enjoying his run in
second while stand in co-driver for the day Enda Sherry in grinning
from ear to ear on his first run in a proper WRC. Noel Redmond is
running back up the field in the top ten and was very much on the
pace over stages three and four and we have him in fifth overall but
road penalties may be applied following his earlier delay. Tommy
Graham is reportedly stopped between stages three and four on the
road section with a mechanical problem.
Alan
Ring continues to lead the GpN category but is coming under
increasing pressure from Adrian Quinn. Ring is struggling with his
tyres, the Munster Joinery man describing how his Impreza was all
over the road and Ring was at a loss as to why. Tadhg Linehan got
closer to the GpN pace following a switch to harder tyres but he
reckons he is loosing out in the technology race. Peter Clifford
completely changed his driving style to compensate for his gearbox
problems and kept the car in fifth gear for virtually the whole two
stages and matched Alan Ring’s times as a result. Peter McCullough
is finding his Lancer down on power on the long straights but is
still going well while John Kelly has a water injection problem on
his Lancer but lies just off the leaderboard on a total of 41.30.
In
the 2wd battle young Eamon McElvaney seems to have dropped out to
leave Seamus Doyle heading the Mk2 race by eleven seconds from Aidan
Walsh who in turn is nine seconds up on Pat Spain despite Pat being
off the road for a few seconds in stage four. More News Later…..
Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd
