RALLY NEWS NO.9
Service/Saturday 12.30
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 9
– Breenagh 2
1ST (6) Andrew
Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Lancer WRC) 52.32.2
2ND (19) Mark
Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Lancer WRC) 52.33.1
3RD (1) Gareth
MacHale/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 52.42.6
4TH (11) Gareth
Jones/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 52.50.2
5TH (5) Derek
McGarrity/Chris Patterson (Impreza WRC) 53.03.2
6TH (7) Tim
McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 53.34.2
7TH (10) Kevin
Lynch/Allan Harryman (Impreza WRC) 52.15.9
8TH (12) Paul
Harris/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 53.23.9
9TH (9) Austin
MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 53.26.3
10TH (8) Eamonn
Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 53.27.0
Car No.3 Colin McRae/Nicky
Grist (Metro 6R4) 53.12.10 – Colin is in the National part of the
rally and leads that section. Would be 6th in the
International.
News just coming in – Gareth
Jones has rolled his Subaru in stage 10 Cark Mountain on a fast
uphill right hander, the car hit the bank and went on to its roof,
was quickly back on wheels and continued behind Colin McRae.
Gareth had been first on the road at that point.
Kevin Lynch ad a problem in
stage 8, his Subaru showing signs of damage to the front left and
he completed the stage with a flat tyre. Changed the wheel and
got going very late heading for stage 9 under pressure. The above
time has to be confirmed. With all the fuss at stage finish the
time is provisional. Ironically Gareth Jones must have got past
Lynch in the stage but didn’t seem to lose any time over it.
Gareth MacHale was also held up and dropped a few seconds. An
earlier stage time for Gareth would appear to vary with the
official results by 10s. There was also a variance in one of
Nesbitt’s times by 10s. No doubt this will be clarified later.
For his part Nesbitt had a good run through stage although he
wasn’t fastest, that honour going to Mark Higgins in the sister
Lancer. Mark’s time was 4.15.4, Nesbitt had 4.16.0 and McGarrity
4.16.2. Derek McGarrity has been knocked backed slightly with a
road penalty. Mark Higgins seems to be a bit happier with the
brakes on his Lancer WRC although he feels that once again he was
on the wrong tyres, a wet type tyre when the roads were drying
fast.
Further news coming in from
stage 10 is that Gareth Jones is limping through and of course the
clock ticks on…..
In Group N through stage 9 Garry
Jennings was .1 of a second faster than Shaun Gallagher, Jennings
trying very hard to make up time following his wrong tyre choice
this morning. Shaun Gallagher is a lot happier with his car since
the rear differential was changed, it has cured the understeer.
In overall group N terms Gallagher leads Garry Jennings by 38s.
Roy White is 3rd group N 10s ahead of Phillip Morrow
with Colm Murphy 4th breathing down Morrow’s neck and
James Cullen is 5th, hot in pursuit of Murphy.
In the National section of
the rally Colin McRae has got well over 2 minutes in hand over 2nd
placed Dessie Keenan who is over 20s ahead of Phil Collins.
Camillus Bradley is 4th, Damien Gallagher 5th,
John Dalton 6th, Paul Gallagher 7th, Ivan
Stewart 8th, Robbie Peoples 9th and Manus
Kelly 10th in his Corolla.
Just outside the overall
leaderboard in the international section of the rally after stage
8 Matthew Wilson was 11th. Stephen Murphy 12th.
Patrick Elliott 13th. Shaun Gallagher 14th.
Hugh M Doherty 15th in his Focus. Denis Biggerstaff 16th.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
(with thanks to Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd)
**FOR LIVE SMS RESULTS: Irish
mobiles text RALLY ITC to 53503: UK mobiles text RALLY ITC to
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Don’t forget the autograph signing
session backed by Modern Tyres, 8.30 at the Pirelli Unit at the
Mt. Errigal.
