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RALLY
NEWS NO.11 Cork Finish/Sunday 5pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 14 – FINAL STAGE
1st (2) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 2.00.59.5
2nd (1) Markko Martin/Dave Senior (Impreza WRC) 2.02.16.5
3rd (3) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 2.02.31.1
4th (9) Gareth Jones/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 2.03.56.8
5th (10) Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Focus WRC) 2.06.13.0
6th (7) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 2.06.24.4
7th (17) Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 2.06.55.9
8th (22) PJ McGrath/Killian Duffy (Impreza WRC) 2.08.07.8
9th (31) James Foley/Lisa Roe (Lancer N) 2.08.24.1
10th (16) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 2.09.09.0
11th (34) Keith Cronin/Anthony Connall (Lancer N) 2.09.36.4
12th (19) Steve Perez/Scott Martin (Focus WRC) 2.09.37.9
13th (25) Roy White/Stephen McAuley (Lancer N) 2.10.11.5
14th (24) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 2.10.32.5
15th (30) Kevin & Martin Kelleher (Lancer N) 2.10.48.1
Mark Higgins was fastest on the final stage, Castlemagnier, of this
Cork 20 Rally to provide a fitting finale to a great drive. Manx
man Mark (now based in Wales) and his co driver, Letterkenny’s
Rory Kennedy, are very worthy winners of the event in their McKinstry
Motorsport Subaru Impreza. Their presence here was backed by FitzSamuel
Insurance, as was Markko Martin and Guy Wilks. The 3 drivers provided
a great bonus for the rally. It was just a great shame that Wilks
retired, but that’s the way of it in rallying. Rory Kennedy
was the winner here in 1992 with the late Bertie Fisher. For British
Champion Mark Higgins it is a maiden Cork 20 win and hopefully we
will see him here again.
Mark Higgins commented here at the finish ramp: “I’m
delighted for Dermot Hanafin and the FitzSamuel team to get first
and second. Delighted as well for Kenny McKinstry, the car went
great and the Pirelli tyres were a dream. It’s a difficult
rally, we had a very big moment today over shiny tar and it flashed
into my mind that a rally is never over until its over”. Markko
Martin said: “I’d like to thank the team for giving
me this chance to get back into a world rally car. I didn’t
expect it to be so difficult. Conditions were tough, it was hard
to build up confidence, not easy to get the pace. I had a couple
of wrong tyre choices and it was real easy to get caught out by
something. I can’t say it changes the way I think but still
it was good to get back into a car and get used to the speed again”.
Eugene Donnelly told us: “I hadn’t a great start to
the rally but I was fit to push harder today, I think I was fastest
on one stage by 0.1 of a second, its good to know we’re there.
These professional boys are in a league of their own in many ways.
It was a shame about Guy Wilks. It was a good way for us to finish
off the year, I think now its time to pension off the Corolla and
push hard for a new car”. Gareth Jones survived an excursion
this morning to finish 4th in the rally and move into 3rd in the
Pirelli C/Ship, relegating Derek McGarrity to 4th. Eugene Donnelly
won of course with Eamonn Boland 2nd. Melvyn Evans’ 7th place
moves him into the lead of the 023 Tiles C/ship.
Latest news on Andrew Nesbitt is that he has a back injury but it
is not too serious.
James Foley had a brilliant group N win and his co driver Lisa Roe
said “We were on edge all the way, very difficult and young
Keith Cronin was coming hard today. I was never on as exciting a
rally”. Roy White was 3rd gpN behind Keith Cronin and Colm
Murphy was 4th which was good enough to win gpN in the Pirelli Championship.
Following the broken drive shaft on Colm’s Impreza the team
changed the diff as well but something went wrong with it on the
last 2 stages. It was also the wrong ratio and Colm reckons he was
barely moving at the end. If it had broken the car wouldn’t
have gone anywhere and the championship would have been lost. Roy
White’s co driver Stephen McAuley said. “Disappointed,
but not disappointed. It was Colm’s to lose really we would
have needed to have won gpN overall and Colm to have finished 5th”.
Finally for now, well done to Frank & Margaret O’Mahony
and all the hard working Munster MC team plus all the many volunteers
from other clubs. Many thanks to all who supported and helped with
our Rally News service. Our thanks also to Noel Clarke for all his
help. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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