UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 15 MALIN HEAD

1^st (3) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 2.19.04.4

2^nd (6) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 2.21.01.2

3^rd (5) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 2.21.06.9

4^th (8) Gareth Jones/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 2.23.04.1

5^th (4) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 2.24.36.0

6^th (19) Roy White/Stephen McAuley (Lancer N) 2.27.50.5

7^th (21) James Cullen/Reba Graham (Lancer N) 2.28.22.9

8^th (23) John McGlaughlin/David McElroy (Lancer N) 2.28.30.0

9^th (15) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 2.28.30.4

10^th (11) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Lance3r N) 2.29.10.8

11^th (10) Paddy White/Graeme Stewart (Impreza WRC) 2.34.13.3

12^th (26) Connor McCloskey/Crawford Henderson (Lancer N) 2.34.17.6

Eugene Donnelly brought his Corolla in here to the service at Ebrington just under 2 minutes in the lead whereas when he left for this morning’s stages he was just over 2 minutes in front.  Eugene and his co driver Paul Kiely were not one bit concerned. There are just 2 stages to go and barring catastrophe it looks like being their rally. Eugene said. “We just tiddled around those 2 stages, I have the engine set on number one lag. I picked a really safe tyre and they weren’t event marked after the 2 stages so that shows you how hard I was trying!”  Eamonn Boland in 2^nd place is on the other hand fighting every inch of the way as he tries to fend off fellow Focus WRC driver Austin MacHale.  Austin said. “It was 80 per cent dry this morning, we made a good tyre choice, slicks with a couple of grooves. I stalled, or almost stalled, on the start line of the first stage this morning, just caught it on the clutch, lucky enough”.  Austin’s co driver Brian Murphy commented a few seconds later. “He has driven very well all weekend, keeping the pressure on Eamonn, Austin has only really made one small mistake in the whole rally and that was on the Mary Gray stage when he dropped 25s with a straight on”. 

Gareth Jones in 4^th place felt his Impreza WRC lost a little bit of power through stage 15, nothing serious and overall Gareth is happy with the way its going and pleased to get plenty of miles done in the new car. Tim McNulty says he is enjoying it now and with 2 stages to go cannot really improve so it’s a matter now of trying to get it to the end.

Roy White in 6^th place and leading group N admits he’s pushing on a bit, that the car is fine and although he was gifted the gpN lead in a way, he just wants to show that he’s more than capable of doing the speed.  Colm Murphy did appear to be up into 2^nd gpN and 7^th overall but he has now been landed with a 30s penalty which has moved him back to 9^th overall and 4^th group N. Colm is adamant that the penalty is unjustified.  Apparently it was for leaving service 3 minutes early this morning which Colm says he wasn’t and is going to appeal this penalty.  For the moment then that leaves James Cullen 7^th overall and 2^nd gpN.  The noise and the shuddering which James thought was gearbox trouble has turned out to be a broken engine mounting. James and Reba got it fixed temporarily but it has gone again, so they are really battling now to get their Lancer to the finish of the rally.

John McGlaughlin in 8^th o/a and 3^rd gpN at the moment had a good run through stage 14, but his tyres went completely off the boil in Malin Head and he dropped some time there. Garry Jennings rounds off the top 10, Garry still kicking himself after losing that 4 minutes in stage 13 and throwing away the group N lead. Garry was saying he had some wild moments through the Malin Head stage this morning, rocked the spectators back on their heels at one point, and landed very heavily over a jump at another point.

Paddy White is in 11^th place and going very nicely, gradually getting over his first stage excursion on to a bridge parapet. Connor McCloskey is counting his lucky stars that he is able to hang on to 12^th overall after being stuck in a Malin Head ditch for a long time. Gavin Harris & Shaun Lafferty are 13^th in their Lancer and having a fairly trouble free run although Gavin got a big fright at a square right in Malin Head and had to dive for the hand brake. Gavin’s brother Paul has retired his Lancer following clutch trouble this morning. Raymond McLoughlin in the orange Lancer is 14^th while Stanley Ballantine rounds off the top 15 in his similar Lancer.

Class leaders include – Andrew Bushe in 17^th. Alan Catchcart 18^th and Damien Tourish 19^th.

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