RALLY NEWS NO.10
Armagh – Saturday 1.30
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD
AFTER STAGE 13 Ivy Hill
1st (3) Eugene
Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.25.03.6
2nd (5) Tim
McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 1.25.18.5
3rd (4) Derek
McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.25.37.9
4th (9) Eamonn
Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 1.25.44.1
5th (6) Austin
MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.26.06.8
6th (7) Peadar
Hurson/Damien Connolly (Impreza WRC) 1.26.17.7
7th (8) Matthew
Wilson/Scott Martin (Focus WRC) 1.26.18.5
8th (1) Mark
Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Focus WRC) 1.28.13.8
9th (18) Seamus
Leonard/Gerry McVeigh (Lancer N) 1.30.36.2
10th (20) Alan
Nesbitt/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 1.31.07.7
This Ulster
Rally turned on its head when Mark Higgins’ Focus ran into mechanical problems
on stage 13, Ivy Hill, and dropped from 1st to 8th. A
side effect of Mark’s problem is that he held up Eugene Donnelly which allowed
Tim McNulty to close within 15s. this could have an effect on the
Pirelli Tarmac c/ship points before this day is out. Halfway through stage 13
Higgins’ Focus broke its propshaft. This left the car with front
wheel drive only, but more than that completely confused all the electronic
transmission gubbins. There is nothing to prove it, but the breakage could
almost certainly be traced back to this morning’s first stage accident –
ironically the first run through Ivy Hill – anyway, Mark had clattered the back
of the Focus into a telegraph pole at a great rate of knots which completely
deranged the rear of the car and must have sent a shock wave straight up the
prop shaft. Mark battled gamely through the stage and Eugene was
stuck behind him for at least half a mile which cost him perhaps 10s, but the
road was so narrow there was no way Eugene could get past. Derek McGarrity
also got held up for quite a long distance but then Tim McNulty got straight
past the struggling Focus and forced on to set fastest time, almost 10s faster
than Donnelly and McGarrity. Mark lost 4 minutes.
When Mark got to the end of
the stage Malcolm Wilson was there and Mark asked him his advice if he should
keep going through the next stage to service. Malcolm shrugged his shoulders
and pointed out that it was Mark’s decision. Any damage to the car was already
done, but there was the ongoing problem of holding up other cars.
We do not know as yet if Mark will try and reach service.
Eugene Donnelly commented
that it wasn’t Mark’s fault that the stages were so narrow that
Mark was only doing what he’s paid to do. Earlier Eugene had a bit
of a panic in service. When the mechanics were changing tyres they
found something wrong with the rear anti roll bar, something which had given
problems earlier in the rally. Eamonn Boland, Tim McNulty, Austin MacHale and
Peadar Hurson all seemed to have a good run through the stage, with just a few
seconds covering Boland, Wilson, MacHale and Hurson. Matthew Wilson did have
some hydraulic pressure trouble in his Focus and had to go on to manual shift.
David Higgins is back on the
pace, fastest of the group N runners following his brake troubles through stages
11 and 12. David said “We’ll press on, we’ve work to do, score some points in
the British championship, the car is 100 per cent now”. Seamus
Leonard continues to lead group N from Alan Nesbitt with Garry Jennings, Aaron
MacHale & Barry Clark next up. David Higgins is now just 4s behind Clark.
In the National Rally John
Price now leads from Mark Jasper with Camillus Bradley up to 3rd.
Chris Davis 4th George Robinson 5th John Stone 6th
John McKeown 7th Mark Hamilton 8th. Stewart Clark has
battled back to 9th and Brian Durnien 10th. Steve Fleck
was up with the top 3 despite a slipping clutch on his Impreza but the clutch
has now cried enough and he is out. Camillus Bradley’s Escort is burning rear
tyres like mad, he’s just over a minute behind John Price and isn’t about to
stop trying to repeat last year’s win.
More news later. BRIAN &
LIZ PATTERSON (with thanks to Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd)
www.rallynews.net
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