RALLY NEWS NO.5 Service/Sunday 2.30
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 5 THE VEE
1st (1) Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC)
28.22
2nd (3) Gareth MacHale/Paul Nagle (Corolla WRC)
28.41
3rd (4) John McCarthy/M Morrissey (Corolla WRC)
28.59
4th (26) John McGlaughlin/David Moynihan (Lancer
N) 30.24
(27) Peter McCullagh/Alan Dolan (Lancer N) 30.24
6th (21) Brian Lawlor/Peter Kavanagh (Escort)
30.31
7th (10) Trevor Harding/Charlie Boland (Impreza)
30.32
8th (23) Brian McGillen/David Doherty (Impreza N)
30.40
9th (5) Kevin O'Kane/Martin Hanna (Impreza WRC)
30.46
10th (31) James Coleman/Eoin O’Neill (Escort)
31.12
11th (25) Andrew Mackaral/Richard Cassidy
(Lancer) 31.16
(9) James Murphy/Anthony Nestor (Esc.Cos) 31.16
Stage by stage Kevin Lynch continues to extend his lead on
this Moonraker Rally, his Impreza WRC not missing a beat so far. On
stage 4 Coolatoor, Lynch recorded 5.48, John McCarthy 5.49 and
Gareth MacHale 5.52. On stage 5, The Vee, Lynch was 6.14, MacHale
6.18 and McCarthy 6.22. These times were about 20s faster than
their first visit to The Vee. On stage 4 McCarthy was faster than
MacHale for the first time, and when asked what made the difference,
McCarthy replied “Just trying a whole lot harder”. On stage 5 then
MacHale resumed the status quo by being 4s quicker.
In Group N both John McGlaughlin and Peter McCullagh are
pulling out all the stops to lie equal 4th overall, both
now ahead of flying Brian Lawlor in the Mark 2 Escort. Brian
McGillen seems to have his turbo problems sorted and he was equal
fastest with McCullagh through stage 5 and was faster by 6s through
stage 4. Trevor Harding is another going very quickly now as he
gets more accustomed to his Impreza, although he says he forgot to
switch on the electronic diff in stage 4 which cost a few seconds.
Dermot Kelly’s Escort WRC seems to be a little better, but still has
some sort of misfire and Dermot is just not setting the times
today.
James Coleman equalled Brian Lawlor’s time through stage 5
which brought him up into 10th on the leaderboard. We
said on the last Rally News that Pat Norris/Declan Tumilty probably
wouldn’t go any further, and they did indeed decide to call it a day
at service. Also retired at service is Richie Curran. He was
starting to make some impression in gpN but discovered a damaged
drive shaft on his Impreza and decided to pack the fiddle.
Drivers lying just outside the leaderboard include Patrick
Elliott on 31.27: Frank Kelly 31.29: Brendan Kelly 31.31: John
McKeown is back on 32.02 but still going well for all that.
Class leaders after stage 3 include: Cl.1 William Walsh (car
52): Cl.2 Joe McDonald (62): Cl.3 Tony Mulcahy (54): Cl.4 Billy
O’Connell (51): Cl.5 Brian Lawlor (21): Cl.7 Pat O’Connell (74):
Cl.9 Ashley McAdoo (70): Ashley McAdoo is the leading Junior. Conor
Kelly who would normally be battling with Ashley has crashed his
Nova out of the rally.
LATE NEWS – John McCarthy reportedly has some problem on the
road section between stages 5 and 6, not known if its serious or
not, more news later on this.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (with thanks to Greg Shinnors &
Elaine Higgins) www.rallynews.net