UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 13 GARRYGORT

1^st (6) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Lancer WRC) 1.20.41.4

2^nd (19) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Lancer WRC) 1.20.46.7

3^rd (1) Gareth MacHale/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 1.21.16.1

4^th (5) Derek McGarrity/Chris Patterson (Impreza WRC) 1.21.23.3

5^th (10) Kevin Lynch/Allan Harryman (Impreza WRC) 1.21.38.4

6^th (2) Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr (Focus WRC) 1.22.32.1

7^th (8) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 1.22.41.4

8^th (9) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.22.43.2

9^th (12) Paul Harris/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 1.22.59.9

10^th (15) Stephen Murphy/M Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 1.23.13.8

11^th (17) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 1.23.23.2

12^th (27) Shaun Gallagher/Charlie McGinty (Lancer N) 1.23.47.6

Car No.3 Colin McRae/Nicky Grist (Metro 6R4) 1.23.07.6 – Colin leads the National Rally and his time would put him in 10^th o/a on the International.

On the Garrygort stage Mark Higgins turned in another stunning time of 6.04.2 with Andrew Nesbitt 2^nd fastest on 6.10.9 and Derek McGarrity 3^rd fastest on 6.12.8.  Interestingly Eugene Donnelly clocked a time of 6.14.2 in the Corolla which is 4^th fastest overall.  Eugene said “We’ve had some run over the last few stages, its going really well although we had a small problem with the anti lag”.  After stage 10 Eugene was 27^th overall and is improving all the time.  There is also a possibility that his 3 minutes road penalty may be removed which would catapult Eugene close to the top 10 and put him quickly into a Pirelli Tarmac championship points scoring position.        

Mark Higgins again emphasised how happy he is with the car now.  British Rally Champion Mark is really showing his class now on every stage. Andrew Nesbitt is looking over his shoulder as the gap between himself and his Mitsubishi team mate shrinks. Andrew commented here at service that his tyres seemed to overheat on Knockalla and he backed off slightly to preserve them.

Early leader Kevin Lynch said here at service “We’re not getting on at all well, we have something rattling at the front. We did replace a drive shaft at the last service and maybe that’s what it is. We will tray and improve this time, this loop. Its not getting any easier”.  Gareth MacHale was disappointed to lose some time on that Garrygort stage. Gareth’s Focus WRC careered up an escape road when he hit a bump into a square right junction, a bump that he didn’t have in his notes and didn’t take into account.  He did say “Its going to be hard to get that 20s back on this rally”.  Colin McRae has slowed ever so slightly, his times are still good but the warm dry roads don’t suit the semi gravel set up on his Metro 6R4. Besides the sticking throttle that we reported earlier from the Knockalla stage Colin has some sort of gearbox or clutch difficulty in the car and the mechanics are going to have a look at it now. Matthew Wilson commented “We’ve had no real dramas, but we’re not breaking our necks either. I was glad to get through the Knockalla stage in one piece”  This last comment was of course in reference to his escapade 2 years ago when he slid his Focus backwards off a Knockalla cliff. 

Paul Harris was thanking his lucky stars when he reached service and recounted coming into a triangle junction in stage 13 when he was flat out in 6^th gear, hit the brakes and a front left brake disc sheared leaving him almost brakeless.  He doesn’t know how he got through the junction, and did scrape a wall in the process. Stephen Murphy has had a quiet run and is now into the top 10. Patrick Elliott is chasing him but Patrick told us he made his notes too fast for Knockall and Garrygort, was nearly off the road 3 times and it has really shaken his confidence.

Shaun Gallagher continues to lead group N but didn’t have a great time through Garrygort. It was that stage last year where he went off the road and said he was very nervous starting the stage this year. Shaun is still being chased by Garry Jennings for group N supremacy, and although Garry had a good time through stage 13 his Lancer is in gearbox trouble and he is going to try to change it here at service which is a massive job. John McGlaughlin had gearbox trouble earlier and the mechanics ran into trouble changing it and he seemed to lose a lot of time. Seamus Leonard is on a group N charge now and he’s got ahead of Roy White for 3^rd in the category. In the National Rally McRae still leads from Dessie Keenan with Camillus Bradley 3^rd, but Keenan’s Escort has developed a misfire and Bradley’s Escort is running into head gasket troubles.  More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net

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