RALLY NEWS                  Easter Sunday morning…early

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 7 (end of Leg 1)

1^st (3) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.03.19.3

2^nd (7) Peadar Hurson/Damien Connolly (Impreza WRC) 1.04.20.8

3^rd (6) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 1.04.34.9

4^th (5) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.05.14.6

5^th (9) Sean Devine/Killian Duffy (Impreza WRC) 1.06.40.5

6^th (11) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Lance3r N) 1.06.52.3

7^th (8) Gareth Jones/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 1.07.02.1

8^th (16) Seamus Leonard/Gerry McVeigh (Lancer N) 1.07.15.8

9^th (21) James Cullen/Reba Graham (Lancer N) 1.07.27.3

10^th (23) John McGlaughlin/David McElroy (Lancer N) 1.08.26.8

11^th (26) Connor McCloskey/Crawford Henderson (Lancer N) 1.08.27.0

12^th (19) Roy White/Stephen McAuley (Lancer N) 1.08.36.5

13^th (12) Nigel Hicklin/Diarmuid Falvey (Corolla WRC) 1.09.05.9     

14^th (4) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 1.09.09.0

15^th (15) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 1.09.39.3

There was a major change to the overnight results when Derek McGarrity was adjudged to have been over maximum lateness at the service out control following a clutch change to his Subaru Impreza.  This was after stage 1 when McGarrity led the rally with a fastest time. It seemed initially that the car was just 3 minutes late out of service, but this was amended to 17 minutes and over maximum lateness at the Stewards meeting at the end of the leg. McGarrity was 3^rd at that time.

Class leaders overnight:

Class A6: Brian O’Mahony/John Higgins led from Andrew Bushe/Simon Mills in their Peugeot 106 with Colin Britton 3^rd in his Peugeot 206.  O’Mahony’s Puma had a small problem during the day with the ECU when the car started to over fuel, hopefully this is now sorted.  Darren Gass was in that class but was forced out early in the day when firstly the car hit a bank following some mechanical trouble, and then the engine light came on and Darren thought it best not to chance damaging the car further. As it transpired the engine was OK and he is re-joining today under the Super Rally rules.

In Class A5 William Gamble/Benny Grainger in their Nissan Micra have a 49s lead over Andrew Stewart/Tony Gallagher in their Swift.

Class N4 is for GpN cars where Garry Jennings leads from Seamus Leonard with James Cullen 3^rd. Cullen is an older model Lancer so did well to set 2 fastest gpN times yesterday afternoon.  Phillip Morrow was expected to be a front runner in gpN but he retired after the first stage, the exhaust melting the boot floor of his new Lancer and there were worries about the car going on fire so it was thought better to withdraw.

Class N3 – Eugene Meegan/Paul McGee have a big lead in their Honda Civic R over Alan Cathcart/Paddy Flanagan in their Civic Type R. While Colin McMonagle/Martin Costello are 3^rd in their Integra.

Class N2 has Tommy Doyle/Ruth Guest narrowly in the lead from Letterkenny’s Conor Harvey with Brian Boyle on the notes, both in Civics. Damien Tourish in yet another Honda is 3^rd with Domhnall McAlaney co-driving.

Class N1: Ernest McMillen MBE and co driver Desi McGlade are the only participants in the class with their Swift and happily are still going, but only just.  Ernest slid the Swift into a bit of a stream and a ditch in stage 4. Desi had to get out and push and managed the get the car back on to the road, but thought at one point he heard a plop of something falling into the stream. Anyway, they got going and Desi discovered he couldn’t read the notes very well, and realised then that the plop he heard was his glasses falling into the stream. So he borrowed Ernest’s spare glasses and vaguely made out the notes for the rest of the day!

More news hopefully after SS8 Barnes Gap: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net

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