RALLY NEWS NO.5
Armagh – Friday 9.45
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 8 TYRONE’S
DITCHES
1st (1) Mark Higgins/Bryan
Thomas (Focus WRC) 42.04.9
2nd (2) Andrew Nesbitt/James
O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 42.17.4
3rd (3) Eugene Donnelly/Paul
Kiely (Corolla WRC) 42.34.8
4th (4) Derek McGarrity/Dermot
O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 42.57.3
5th (5) Tim McNulty/Anthony
Nestor (Impreza WRC) 43.19.4
6th (9) Eamonn Boland/Francis
Regan (Focus WRC) 43.22.3
7th (8) Matthew Wilson/Scott
Martin (Focus WRC) 43.30.6
8th (6) Austin MacHale/Brian
Murphy (Focus WRC) 43.42.7
9th (7) Peadar Hurson/Damien
Connolly (Impreza WRC) 43.52.9
10th (10) David
Higgins/Daniel Barritt (Lancer N) 44.59.1
Through the darkness of stage 8,
Tyrone’s Ditches, Mark Higgins was again fastest by 4s from Andrew Nesbitt who
in turn was 4s up on Eugene Donnelly. Matthew Wilson had been clocking up some
super times but a front left puncture 4 miles from the end of Tyrone’s Ditches
when Matthew clipped a rock on the inside of a corner was enough to send his
stage time plummeting. Austin MacHale also hit a rock on a left hander on that
stage but he escaped a flat tyre.
At first sight Mark Higgins’ overnight lead on
Andrew Nesbitt was 23s. However, a 10s penalty for a stage 4 start
infringement has narrowed that gap to 13s which is a slightly different ball
game. Eugene Donnelly is just 17s behind Nesbitt. Derek McGarrity 23s behind
Donnelly so there is still a lot to play for on this Ulster Rally. Mark
Higgins commented when he brought his Focus into service in Armagh. “We’ve
been pushing hard, got a good rhythm going, I’m happy to get some time off
Andrew in the dark.” Andrew Nesbitt said. “I’m happy enough, I think we did
well to keep in touch, on one of the stages I didn’t get the spotlights
switched on properly, it was a good pace and I’m quite happy where I am”.
Eugene Donnelly reported. “I had a great run, I really enjoyed the darkness,
that’s like rallying should be. Them boys in front are flying. I said earlier
about stiffening up the anti roll bar. What I didn’t know was that it was
broken, its really good now”.
Derek McGarrity reported. “We had
problems with the fuel pumps as you know and went on to the spare, but the car
really needs 2 pumps working properly. We didn’t have a great run in the
dark”. Tim McNulty discovered that his Pierse backed Impreza had its front
differential locked on, which wasn’t as it should be, and then when he
switched on the spotlights they were pointing straight into the road, so that
didn’t help his cause either. Austin MacHale said that when he clipped the
rock on the left hander just before Desmond’s Corner he thought for sure that
he had a puncture and took it easy for a mile or so before resuming full
speed. Peadar Hurson was slowed on the final stage of the evening because of a
bad vibration coming up through the floor of his Impreza. He thinks that
either one of the rear drive shafts or a prop shaft has been damaged.
Justin Dale continues to have a good run
in the Fiesta but still feels he is losing time on the very narrow bits of
road where the front wheels are on the gravel at the sides and spinning away
the seconds.
In Group N David Higgins is the man to beat,
although Seamus Leonard went well through stage 8 and was a few seconds
quicker than Higgins. Third in group N is Alan Nesbitt, 4th Garry
Jennings, 5th Aaron MacHale and 6th Barry Clark despite
a stage 2 accident which left a front right hand mudguard a bit of a mess.
Glenn Wilson is next up, 7th group N and 16th overall.
Glenn almost blotted his copybook in stage 7 when his Lancer slithered into a
fence on a downhill square right. Happily the only casualty was a slightly
awry wing mirror. Keith McElhinny leads class N3 in his Civic. Darren Gass
leads the Super 1600 category in his Saxo. Having said that, Justin Dale will
almost certainly be credited with a scratch time for stage 4 when he stopped
to make sure that Rory Galligan was OK, and this will bring Justin right up
the list. At the moment he is being shown in the official results in 28th
place, but he will almost certainly come up into the top 20 if he gets that
scratch time. Young Peter Wilson is leading class N2 in his Civic and John
Paul Ruth is leading cl.A7 in his Peugeot. A further retirement this evening
was Richard Gower whose Accent stopped on the first stage following an
accident. More news in the morning. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
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