RALLY NEWS
NO.17
Finish Letterkenny/Sunday 5.45
UNOFFICIAL
LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 22
– final stage
1st (6) Andrew
Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Lancer WRC) 2.32.11.6
2nd (19) Mark
Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Lancer WRC) 2.32.38.2
3rd (1) Gareth
MacHale/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 2.33.07.0
4th (5) Derek
McGarrity/Chris Patterson (Impreza WRC) 2.33.25.5
5th (8) Eamonn
Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 2.35.28.3
6th (4) Eugene
Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 2.36.29.3
7th (9) Austin
MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 2.36.50.9
8th (12) Paul
Harris/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 2.39.19.0
9th (17) Patrick
Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 2.39.44.7
10th
(15) Stephen Murphy/M Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 2.42.28.8
Car No.3 Colin McRae/Nicky
Grist (Metro 6R4) 2.38.29.9: Colin has won the National rally and
his times were good enough for 8th in the International.
Andrew Nesbitt and his co
driver James O’Brien scored a fabulous victory on this Shell Donegal
International Rally. Andrew was at the back of the top 10 on the
first morning but really got to grips with his Mitsubishi and scored
2 fastest times on the Friday afternoon to post his intentions of a
5th Donegal victory. It nearly slipped through Andrew’s
fingers on the final stage, Atlantic Drive, when he spun his Lancer
WRC. He got away with it with approximately 15-20s time loss and
finished the event in fine style. He took time out to comment at
the stop line of the stage. “The car was fantastic and the Pirelli
tyres, it’s been a great day for the Irish. The accident was more of
a slow off, more an overshoot. It has been a fantastic rally.”
Second placed Mark Higgins overcame all sorts of early problems with
his Lancer and really got his act together to put the pressure on
Nesbitt. In the end Mark felt that the gap between himself and
Andrew was too big to close and perhaps he relaxed a little, but he
damaged the side of his Lancer on a stage 21 accident and was lucky
to get away with it and retain his 2nd place. In the
event he could so nearly have won if Andrew had lost any more time
in that final stage incident.
Young Gareth MacHale really
proved his pedigree by bringing his Focus WRC into 3rd
overall. This Donegal Rally is considered to be a specialist event
and Gareth had never competed here at this level, although he did
drive a Peugeot here a few years ago. He was able to mix it with
the fastest times and the best tarmac drivers in the country. Derek
McGarrity must be slightly disappointed not to get a podium place.
Derek’s Subaru finished just 20s behind MacHale’s Focus and Derek is
carrying a 30s penalty. That’s rallying. Eamonn Boland as usual
drove a very accomplished rally and 5th was a fine
result. Eamonn saying at the end “Not a bother!”
One of the great heroes of
the rally was Eugene Donnelly. Eugene and his co driver Paul Kiely
were back in 65th in the classification following the
fire in their Corolla engine bay on Friday afternoon. Eugene stuck
at his task and carved back through the field crowning it all with a
fastest time on the final stage to just get ahead of Austin MacHale.
In Pirelli Tarmac championship terms Eugene still holds a commanding
lead with a provisional 49 points as against Boland’s 39 and Derek
McGarrity’s 28. Last minute incidents include Stephen Murphy
dropping at least 5 minutes on the last stage when his Impreza
developed severe clutch slip.
In Group N Shaun Gallagher
led the category for most of the way but then lost it to Seamus
Leonard earlier today when his Lancer’s front differential broke on
the first run over Atlantic Drive. Leonard looked as if he was going
to take the win but lost time on the final stage when he broke
something in his Lancer’s transmission on the final stage to allow
Shaun Gallagher through to group N victory. We are still waiting for
more times, but it looks like Roy White could be 2nd
group N with 3rd a toss up between Seamus Leonard, James
Cullen and Colm Murphy. Former British Champion Jonny Milner was
well down the group N order anyway but lost 3 minutes on the first
loop of today’s stages when he slid his Lancer off the road.
We were honoured indeed to
have Colin McRae and Nicky Grist here in Donegal in their Metro 6R4,
Colin giving the spectators a rare treat. Colin & Nicky won the
National part of the rally hands down and it looks like Dessie
Keenan will be 2nd, John Dalton 3rd. With a
few stages to go John Farrell was leading the Historics in his
Escort from Sean Treacy. Adrian Kermode/Maurice Beckett retired
their Porsche from 2nd place with a damaged engine.
Finally for now very well done to all the hard working officials of
the rally and everyone who has made it such a success under the
direction of new CoC Danny Gormley. Our thanks to all who helped and
supported the Rally News service.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
www.rallynews.net
