Rally News No.5                 Grants Hotel Roscrea Finish Sunday 5.30pm

 Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage 8 (Final Stage)

1^st (1) Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Focus WRC) 1.06.28

2^nd (3) Martin Doherty/Andrew Cullen (Impreza WRC) 1.08.41

3^rd (6) Aaron McHale/Gerard McGonigle (Corolla WRC) 1.10.28

4^th (17) James M Stafford/James F Stafford (Lancer N) 1.11.29

5^th (19) Darragh Raferty/Martin Brady (Impreza WRC) 1.11.34

6^th (12) David James/Derek Brannigan (Focus WRC) 1.11.55

7^th (20) P J McGrath/Killian Duffy (Impreza N) 1.12.08

8^th  (18) Mark Courtney/Paul Kelly (Celica) 1.12.12

9^th (21) John Kelly / Robbie Shaw (Lancer N) 1.13.14

10^th  (164) Stephen Cullen/Edward Roche (Impreza N) 1.14.13

It has been a red letter day for reigning Dunlop National Champion Ray Breen and co-driver Andrew Purcell who have completely dominated today’s rally.  Fastest on every stage the Waterford pairing were never seriously threatened and turned in a copy book performance.  One year ago Breen scored his first major rally win on this event but today was an indication of how far he has moved on.  Breen was overjoyed at the finish of the last stage telling us “that was really great fun today, the stages were great and we had a good go over that last one, that should be a good time”.  Ray going on to say how much he had enjoyed the rally and that it was good practice for next weekend’s opening Dunlop round in Mayo.  Martin Doherty was very much out on his own today but drove a faultless rally along with co driver Andrew Cullen to score one of his best ever results.  Aaron McHale was equally pleased to bring his Corolla home in a strong third but had he not suffered his first stage puncture he and Martin Doherty would almost certainly have had a much closer race, while Aaron was able to bed himself into the car and start playing with differential and suspension settings over the final tests. 

James Stafford drove a brilliant rally to take a fantastic fourth overall and the GpN award while Darragh Raferty and Martin Brady at last got a solid finish in their Impreza WRC with a good run to fifth this afternoon.  P J McGrath could not quite match the Staffords this afternoon in the GpN race but still brought their machine home in seventh.  David James struggled on gamely despite still feeling seriously queasy over the special stages but has proved he has a strong turn of speed in his Focus WRC. 

Just outside the top ten we reckon Mike Quinn has won the 2wds and taken class 14 in his Mk2 finishing on a provisional total of 1.14.28 which would put him just outside the top ten.  Trevor Culbert has had another strong run and looks to have taken class 13 in his Mk2 and posted another strong run finishing the day on a total of 1.15.28.  Tommy Graham retired his Impreza WRC after sliding off the road for a second time, fortunately on this occasion no damage was sustained.

Finally for now, many thanks to our sponsors today and well done to COC Bill Ryan and his team including all the marshals and timekeepers on running another great Birr Stages Rally. 

Michael Patterson & Zoë Todd