RALLY NEWS
NO.12 Armagh – Saturday 4.30
UNOFFICIAL
LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 15 The Hollow
1st
(3) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.41.04.4
2nd
(5) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 1.41.21.8
3rd
(4) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.41.43.1
4th
(9) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 1.41.49.9
5th
(6) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.42.22.9
6th
(7) Peadar Hurson/Damien Connolly (Impreza WRC) 1.42.32.5
7th
(8) Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin (Focus WRC) 1.42.34.0
8th
(1) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Focus WRC) 1.46.52.3
9th
(18) Seamus Leonard/Gerry McVeigh (Lancer N) 1.47.36.9
10th
(20) Alan Nesbitt/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 1.48.09.3
Stage 15 was
always going to be a critical stage in the race for the chequered flag on this
Ulster Rally with 2 drivers under the spotlight – Eugene Donnelly and Tim
McNulty. Donnelly was 1.2 seconds faster than McNulty which pushes his leading
margin up to 17.4 seconds which should be more than enough with just one proper
stage and 2 spectator stages to go. Having said that nothing is safe in
rallying and indeed this has been one of the most unpredictable events for
years. Matthew Wilson was actually fastest through the stage, 0.8 of a second
up on McGarrity and Boland who tied.
Eugene Donnelly
said at stage finish. “We picked a safe option on tyres it’s a matter of keeping
it altogether now”. Tim McNulty shook his head at stage finish and commented.
“Not good enough”. Derek McGarrity remarked that the engineers had at long last
given him the sort of grunt from the engine that should have been there from the
start but wasn’t. Eamonn Boland had a real good run through the stage. Matthew
Wilson was a little slow at the start of the stage, the engineers had fixed his
Focus gear change and he really flew towards the end, despite a half spin at a
hairpin left. We speculated on the last RallyNews that Mark Higgins might have
to go out on the final 3 stages with just 2 wheel drive. The Buckley engineers
did a great job welding up the tunnel of the Focus and they have restored the
car to more or less full health. Mark however says he is just going to
concentrate on getting the car through to the end to pick up some Pirelli
British c/ship points. Austin MacHale picked a harder compound tyre for that
stage, found they were slow to bed down but worked very well towards the end and
Austin was well on the pace.
In Group N David
Higgins is still the fastest man but he is back in 14th place. Seamus
Leonard leads and was flat out through that stage 14, knocked a bumper off his
Lancer with a big slide. Garry Jennings says there is nothing left in his Lancer
and he just can’t overhaul Alan Nesbitt in the Impreza for 2nd group
N. However Garry is still concentrating on getting Pirelli Tarmac points. Aaron
MacHale is 12th overall and 4th group N, Barry Clark 13th
and 5th gpN. Justin Dale continues to lead the S1600 category in his
Fiesta from Brian O’Mahony in the Puma. Peter Wilson leads cl.N2 in his Civic.
John Price has
won the National Rally from the similar Metro 6R4 of Mark Jasper. Camillus
Bradley was 3rd and best 2 wheel drive in his Ford Escort. Mark
Hamilton, on his first year in rallying was 7th and won group N in
his Impreza while Willie John Dolan with Jon Desborough on the pace notes was 2nd
group N. Willie John had the interesting slogan across his windscreen “Tyrone to
rob the Orchard” …wonder what that’s all about!!
More news later.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd). * For LIVE
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