RALLY NEWS NO.11                  Omagh Service/Sunday 4.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 13 CRAIG HILL 2

1^st (3) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 2.02.17.0

2^nd (6) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 2.04.35.4

3^rd (5) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 2.04.49.7

4^th (8) Gareth Jones/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 2.06.28.6

5^th (4) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 2.08.08.6

6^th (19) Roy White/Stephen McAuley (Lancer N) 2.10.36.4

7^th (23) John McGlaughlin/David McElroy (Lancer N) 2.10.58.0

8^th (21) James Cullen/Reba Graham (Lancer N) 2.11.08.6

9^th (15) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 2.11.18.3

10^th (26) Connor McCloskey/Crawford Henderson (Lancer N) 2.11.35.2

11^th (11) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Lance3r N) 2.12.00.0

12^th (10) Paddy White/Graeme Stewart (Impreza WRC) 2.15.53.9

The dramas continue on this Circuit of Ireland…..Sean Devine retired his Impreza WRC after stage 12 when the car stuck in first gear. Seamus Leonard reportedly went off the road in that Rousky 2 stage, Seamus’ home patch! Garry Jennings lost the group N lead when he slithered his Lancer into a soft ditch in stage 13 dropping 4 minutes.

Rally leader Eugene Donnelly told us at the end of this 2^nd day. “We had a bit of a fright over the last 2 stages when we ran into gear selector problems, something wrong with the paddles. It was a bit of heart stopper. We’re going to change all the electronics here at service. We pushed hard enough when we could.”  Eugene now has a 2m18s lead over Eamonn Boland and there is very little stage mileage on the final day so surely Eugene can coax the car to the finish now?  Second placed Boland had a bit of a moment when he punctured the front left wheel of his Focus on stage 11, Barnes Gap. Indeed many of the top drivers punctured in the same place and Eamonn reckons that the competitors in the National rally had been cutting in really tight on a left hand corner, had cleared away some of the mud and exposed the offending rock.  Austin MacHale was also affected. Austin saying that he took it very easy through the following stage, the 16 mile Rousky 2, as he had no spare wheel in his Focus WRC.  He is going to have the suspension well checked out here at service as he reckons he drove 5 miles on a flat wheel.

Tim McNulty has carved his way up to 5^th place with some impressive times and he’s learning all about his Pierse backed Impreza WRC S11 with every stage of value. Gareth Jones had a troubled time over the last loop of 3 stages.  The young Welshman set a fastest time this morning and then when he left service the brakes weren’t right, weren’t right at all on his Impreza WRC, and he took it very gently.

Following Garry Jennings’ time loss, James Cullen’s 2 minute puncture and Seamus Leonard’s retirement Roy White has leapfrogged his lancer into 6^th overall and 1^st in Group N. Roy also had a puncture in stage 11 and was forced to take it fairly handy through stages 12 and 13 as he was running a soft slick on one side at the front and a hard slick on the other side. John McGlaughlin has kept his brain very much in gear and moved into 2^nd place, his Lancer brakes now working well and John driving equally well.  James Cullen was pretty distraught when he arrived in to service. Having survived that 2m puncture Cullen’s Lancer now has big gearbox trouble and he doesn’t know if there is a spare to put in.  Colm Murphy has improved really well over the last couple of stages and he said. “The car is back on power a bit but we’re really driving it. Tyre choice is difficult but we’re going OK”.   Connor McCloskey has had all sorts of handling problems with his Lancer but he has hung in well to move into 10^th place.

Garry Jennings was really upset when he came into service. His Lancer looks completely undamaged but apparently it just slid on at a square right junction, went into a little lane and just fell over on to its side in a ditch. Garry said something along the lines of. “Not a mistake the whole rally. I just handbraked it in, so simple”.  Paddy White in 12^th is still not happy about the handling of his Impreza WRC. He says it is going round left hand hairpins and tight corners OK, but right handers are a no no! 

More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net

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