RALLY NEWS NO.2
Feakle/Sunday 11.30am
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 1 Drumcharley
1st (2) Patrick Elliott/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 7.03
2nd (1) Charlie Donnelly/Paddy Toner (Corolla WRC) 7.07
3rd (3) Aaron MacHale/Eugene O'Donnell (Focus WRC) 7.17
4th (4) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (Impreza WRC) 7.40
Although there was bright sunshine the first stage asphalt was wet
and slippy with a light covering of moss in places. When Charlie
Donnelly arrived at stage finish his co driver Paddy Toner said.
“Yes, very very slippy, its hard to know how we went.”
The answer to that wasn’t long coming when Elliott’s
Subaru came in to the finish with a time 4s faster. Cavan
man Patrick commented. “Very hard to get a rhythm, a difficult
stage and slippy”.
Aaron MacHale’s Focus was next up and he said. “That
was our first stage really in the wet in this car. It went OK, I’ll
be alright later”. Fourth on the road, Denis Cronin,
had grass and mud sticking out of the front left corner of his Impreza
WRC and Denis was quickly out of the Subaru to inspect the damage,
saying “We spun and stalled at a square junction”.
Kenny McKinstry was on hand waiting for some of his cars to appear
and Kenny thought that Denis had perhaps picked too hard a compound
slick tyre for the conditions.
Following Denis Cronin an ominous silence descended on the little
village of Feakle and as the seconds ticked away it became pretty
obvious that someone had stopped or crashed. That somebody
transpired to be Noel Redmond, his Subaru stuck in a hedge on a
downhill square left corner. Niall Maguire was first on the scene
and in the absence of an “OK” board he had to stop and
make sure the driver and co driver were unhurt. Thankfully
they were but the car is stuck in there and the following cars also
had to stop so didn’t get a time for the stage.
More news after stage 3.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
