RALLY NEWS NO.5
Loughrea Service – Sunday 4pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6
Shangary
1st (3) Charlie Donnelly/Paddy
Toner (Corolla WRC) 47.45.6
2nd (4) Eamonn Boland/Francis
Regan (Focus WRC) 47.53.0
3rd (1) Ray Breen/Andrew
Purcell (Focus WRC) 48.02.8
4th (8) Niall Maguire/Paul
McLaughlin (Impreza WRC) 49.18.9
5th (11) Denis Cronin/Helen
O'Sullivan (Impreza WRC) 49.31.5
6th (6) Noel Redmond/Diarmuid
Falvey (Impreza WRC) 50.28.6
7th (14) Michael Curran/Fabian
McShane (Lancer N) 50.29.9
8th (5) Kevin Barrett/Barry
Goodman (Impreza WRC) 50.49.4
9th (16) Willie Fannin/Mick
Courtney (Impreza N) 51.02.3
10th (15) Alan Ring/Derek
Brannigan (Impreza N) 51.21.3
11th (57) Gabriel Martin/Donal
Lennon (Impreza N) 51.41.1
12th (43) Eddie Donaghy/Charlie
Donaghy (Lancer N) 51.56.1
Charlie Donnelly was fastest through
stages 5 and 6, Black Road and Shangary, his Corolla 5s up on
Ray Breen’s Focus through stage 5 and then 3s up on Eamonn
Boland’s Focus on stage 6. When Donnelly made it here to
service he said. “It’s going really well, after about a year
I’ve at long last learned how to set this car up”. Breen
commented. “We’re going OK, comfortably hard”. When Eamonn
Boland arrived and was asked how he was getting on with the
Focus, he said. “Not a bother, car seems fine, I’d like a few
more stages in the dry”.
Niall Maguire is now looking fairly solid
in 4th and said. “These are 4 great stages, its just
the weather hasn’t been great, we’re taking no chances”. Denis
Cronin in 5th is now having a little gearbox worry,
Denis saying. “It is slipping out of 6th some times
and there’s a minor noise has appeared into the box, something’s
not right, hopefully it’ll last the day”. Noel Redmond has
moved from 7th to 6th, saying. “We’re
happy enough, taking it gently over the crests to try and save
my back”.
Michael Curran left service with wet
weather tyres on his Group N Lancer and although stage 56 was
wet, stage 6 was pretty dry Michael found the car sliding about
a bit and lost just a second or two. However he still leads
group N fairly comfortably from Willie Fannin with Alan Ring 3rd.
Willie has continued to go hard over the last few stages but now
his Impreza clutch has gone and there is a big panic in service
to get the unit changed within the allotted time. As can be
seen above Gabriel Martin has come up to 4th in group
N just ahead of Eddie Donaghy.
We reported on the last RallyNews that
Jack Sleator in the Fabia wasn’t feeling very well, we have
since been informed that he has withdrawn from the rally. We
were trying as well to keep tabs on Paul Dempsey in the Group A
Subaru, but following his stage 4 puncture we hear unconfirmed
reports that he has got involved in an incident in stage 6, a
coming together with another car, No.67, and may have stopped.
Martin Ward’s BMW has stopped at the end of stage 6 with
reported engine problems. Sean Lyons & Michael Quinn are having
a big battle for class 14. Seamus McCusker was in that tussle
but his Escort had a throttle stuck open problem in stage 5 and
in fixing it then there was a multi wiring connection knocked
loose, so between one thing and another Seamus and co driver
Vincent Fergus have lost over a minute. In Class 13 Paddy Boyle
still has the edge on Anthony O’Halloran with Pat Spain and
Aidan Walsh slipping back slightly. Finally for now many thanks
to Micro-Cam for the lovely cups of tea and to Podge Newe for
some phone calls from the ends of stages (Podge is awaiting a
phone call from the maternity hospital where his wife is about
to give birth!).
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
www.rallynews.net
