RALLY NEWS NO.2            Omagh Service/Saturday  10.45am

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 1 BALIX HILL

1^st (2) Derek McGarrity/Chris Patterson (Impreza WRC) 12.15.0

2^ND (3) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 12.21.8

3^RD (6) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 12.28.2

4^TH (4) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 12.28.8

5^TH (5) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 12.37.9

6^TH (7) Peadar Hurson/Damien Connolly (Impreza WRC) 12.45.1

7^TH (8) Gareth Jones/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 12.46.7

8^TH (9) Sean Devine/Killian Duffy (Impreza WRC) 12.58.9

9^TH (11) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Lance3r N) 13.07.4

10^TH (16) Seamus Leonard/Gerry McVeigh (Lancer N) 13.13.1

When Derek McGarrity brought his beautiful Subaru WRC S11 in here to service he told us. “I’m confident that without the clutch slip we would have had a really good time on that first stage. I know we still went well.”  Just how well is shown by the leaderboard above.  McGarrity reported that the clutch started to slip about halfway through the stage, and going up hills the revs were continually shooting off the clock.  “Its nothing that four and a half grand won’t fix for the new clutch and we’ll get it stuck in now”, laughed the Glengormley man, and he went on to say. “We picked an intermediate Pirelli tyre and it worked very well most of the time. There are places where maybe a slick would have been better. But it is a long stage and in this weather, with slight rain, you were never going to be right everywhere”. 

Tim McNulty said. “We made a brave choice, a slick, and it’s a confidence thing over the slippy places, but we’re going to stay on that and hope”.  Eugene Donnelly told us. “I made my usual slow start, we were getting quite a lot of grip, more than I thought, but I was being cautious. I wanted as well to find out exactly what the car would do over the bumps. Derek McGeehan and the boys did a lot of fine tuning to the suspension on Thursday and I’m very happy with the car now. Much better than it was for the opening stage of Rally Ireland where the bumps really affected us”.  Eamonn Boland said. “We went not too bad, the car is perfect”.  Austin MacHale commented. “I was maybe a bit cautious. The rear diff sensor tripped towards the end of the stage but it was no big deal”. 

Gareth Jones seems to be not totally settled in to his new Subaru. The young Welshman reporting 2 small overshoots and a stall at one junction.  Sean Devine reckoned he was too cautious in the stage.  Sean actually lives on that stage and was building a new wall outside the house this week, so there was quite a lot of mud there. Interestingly, Seamus Leonard had a massive overshoot right at the Devine house and slithered through the front gates, just missing the impressive pillars. Seamus said. “It was a square left and then a downhill 6 right and I thought for sure one of the pillars was going to go, but we went straight through and thankfully Mrs Devine wasn’t in the front garden!” 

Leonard still managed 2^nd fastest in group N behind Garry Jennings. Garry’s new Lancer had ECU problems last night at the L/Derry Guildhall start where Lady Mayor Lynn Fleming did an impressive job at waving the cars away. Anyway, Garry seems to have got the car sorted and he’s right on the pace.  Also in the group N hunt is Paul Harris with a time of 13.16.6. James Cullen had 13.17.5. Roy White 13.20.7.  Roy felt that he wasn’t driving very well, but still it was a good time.  Colm Murphy was just a fraction slower than White, Murphy reporting his Impreza hesitating going away from junctions. Besides that Colm is determined to get and get the car to the finish and break his Circuit of Ireland jinx. Phillip Morrow was on a time of 13.30.6 in his new Lancer and said. “We had a spin at a junction, the busiest corner of the rally and the ridiculous thing is I was taking it pretty steady. I’m happy all the same, its early days, we’ve had no testing time with the car and there’s more to come”.  Some more times include – Nigel Hicklin 13.41.6 in his Corolla. Gavin Harris 13.55.6. We missed Paddy White’s time, but he lost over a minute when he crashed his Impreza WRC on top of a wall at a hairpin over a humped back bridge.

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

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