UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2 PALLAS

1^st (2) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 17.26.0

2^nd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 17.37.5

3^rd (3) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 17.41.8

4^th (6) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 17.47.9

5^th (11) Peadar Hurson/Damien Connolly (Impreza WRC) 17.53.0

6^th (5) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 18.05.8

7^th (8) Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Focus WRC) 18.09.8

8^th (9) Gareth Jones/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 18.24.6

9^th (4) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 18.34.3

10^th (22) James Foley/Dominic Markey (Lancer N) 18.37.8

11^th (139) Philip Morrow/Derek Brannigan (Lancer N) 18.39.3

12^th (14) JJ Fleming/Robbie Ward (Focus WRC) 18.44.5

Following his fastest time on the first stage Tim McNulty had to give best to both Eugene Donnelly and Derek McGarrity on the 2^nd stage. McNulty’s charge thwarted when his Pierse backed Subaru suffered a jammed open throttle and McNulty was having to drive the car as best he could through hairpins and muddy farmyards on full revs, slamming the car down the gears and jamming the brakes on to keep it under control.  Last year’s winner Eugene Donnelly said he attacked hard, in his own words “We were more aggressive, drove it like an Escort, forgot about trying to set lines. I wasn’t overly happy with the suspension, we tested last week, with the other car, it seemed great, transferred the settings to this car but its just not right”. 

Derek McGarrity said. “We were up and down a few ditches on the first stage so I was trying to brake a wee bit earlier in stage 2 and then power through the corners. But you wouldn’t know when to put the brakes on, it is so unpredictable and slippy”.  Andrew Nesbitt was slightly off the pace on the opening stage, his 2^nd stage nothing great either. The former Champion saying “I’ll be alright its early days, but I was a bit cautious on the first stage, I think the settings on the car were too soft and then on the 2^nd I slid into a gateway and damaged the bumper. It was nothing, a 5mph overshoot but we lost some time”. 

Austin MacHale told us. “I clipped something about halfway through the stage, I think it was a manhole cover at a square left. We were cautious for the next couple of miles in case the tyre would go down. I didn’t think that 2^nd stage was just as shitty as it might have been, not too bad”.  Ray Breen told of sliding his Focus into a ditch where he turned off a good road on a left hand junction into a narrow lane, but no great damage. Maurice Gass is still down the order slightly, his total 19.55.2, Maurice saying the Skoda seems very torquey, spinning wheels everywhere seemingly not getting any grip. George Tracey had a good time on the opening stage, dropped nearly a minute on the 2^nd when his 206 WRC had some turbo problems.

We said on the last RallyNews about Aaron MacHale struggling to get gears on the Corolla. The car was no better on stage 2, Aaron overshot into a gateway and then when he reversed out he crashed into the front of JJ Fleming’s Focus WRC. Happily no great damage, but plenty of banter!  Young Gareth Jones lost some time on the first stage when he punctured a front tyre 4km from the end of the stage, and then he stalled the Subaru on the 2^nd stage, but overall doing quite well despite all that.

In Group N James Foley has surged to the front. He had given us a wrong time for the opening stage and he had a really good run through stage 2. Philip Morrow put his lancer into a field briefly in stage 2 which cost him the category lead. Roy White was 3^rd GpN but lost a bucket of time in stage 2 when at a very fast approach down a main road, the route went very fast left off the main road into a narrow road and then there was a square left.  It was a cautioned place but Roy was just too fast and landed his Lancer on top of a wall where it was stuck for nearly 4 minutes. No real damage except for the pride! Paul Dempsey had a good run in his Group N Subaru, his total 20.05.7. James Cullen is on 19.02.6. Kevin Kelleher 19.14.9. Alan Ring is settling in to his new Subaru N12, speeding up nicely and his total is 18.54.7. Willie Fannin 18.51.7 despite a cow wandering out in front of his Impreza in stage 2.  John McGlaughlin flew through stage 1 but dropped a few second sin stage 2 when his Lancer clouted a pole. Seamus Leonard lost a fair bit of time on stage 1 when he damaged a rear wheel, but got the finger out in stage 2, setting overall gpN fastest time, his total now 19.43.0.  Conor McCloskey had had a steady run so far his total 19.42.3. Tom Holton has got a new engine in his Celica and he seems to be setting the pace in the modified section of the rally,