1^st (1) Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Focus WRC) 4.33

2^nd (2) Charlie Donnelly/Paddy Toner (Corolla WRC) 4.44

3^rd (4) Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza WRC) 4.48

4^th (17) Martin Doherty/Andrew Cullen (Impreza WRC) 4.49

5^th (6) Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly (Corolla WRC) 4.51

6^th (7) Sean Devine/Kieran Kelly (Impreza WRC) 4.52

7^th (3) Patrick Elliott/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 4.53

    (10) Michael Curran/Fabian McShane (Lancer N) 4.53

9^th (15) Aaron MacHale/Ger McMonagle (Corolla WRC) 4.56

10^th (18) Kevin Kelleher/Martin Kelleher (Lancer N) 4.59

 No.1 seed Ray Breen was first on the road on the opening stage of this Mayo Stages Rally, Waterford man Breen commenting at the stage finish. “Very slippy, but otherwise OK”.  As it transpired Breen, the reigning Dunlop National Champion was miles faster than anyone else.  Charlie Donnelly was 2^nd fastest but 11s in arrears of the flying Focus WRC in front.  When Charlie brought his Corolla WRC to a halt he leapt out and round to the nearside back wheel and started to clean massive sods of mud and gravel from the rim, explaining as he did so. “We were off on the very first square right corner of the stage, got caught out on the gravel in the middle of the road”.  Fortunately for Charlie there didn’t seem to be any real damage. Patrick Elliott was next up in his new Impreza, the Cavan man looking decidedly shaken, remarking that his new car seemed to have incredible power and he was finding it difficult to get used to. 

Former Champion Niall Maguire was 4^th on the road, Niall setting a very solid time despite having some intercom troubles. Noel Redmond was next up, but he was a few seconds off the pace on a time of 5.01 as he settled down to his hired P2000 Subaru. Many of the following drivers such as Glenn Allen seemed to be happy just to get through the stage, get settled in.

Michael Curran was fastest group N despite his Lancer having a very slight misfire. Willie Fannin felt that his gpN Impreza suspension was set too stiff. Clonakilty man Kevin Kelleher, right in the gpN picture, mentioned that his Lancer throttle response seemed to be all wrong. Aaron MacHale had an overshoot at a junction, otherwise he would have had a really good time.

On the subject of the MacHale family, Aaron’s brother Gareth is having a fabulous run on Rally Mexico and is lying 6^th overall.  Loeb was leading Mexico overnight. Arai leading Production category with Nasser Al-Attiyah & Chris Patterson 2^nd and 9^th overall.  Gareth has just phoned us from Mexico – its 6am there and his first stage is 40kms long, temperature just under 30 degress and 50 in the car.  He told us that he stalled the car on the first stage of the rally and then burst a wheel on the 2^nd, after that he got quicker and quicker as he settled in to the 03 machine and he had closed to within 8s of Matt Wilson when Matt got caught out in a kink through a dip and crashed his Focus off the road.  Gareth sounds like he’s having a ball and he was racing Nasser and our Chris through the super special last night!!  Chris has told us that Nasser made a poor tyre choice for the first 3 stages of the rally and also had the wrong settings for the suspension, but all is OK now. Back here in Mayo – David McNulty had a spin and dropped about 10s. Paddy Boyle also had a spin.  Gordon Rogers was the fastest of the early 2 wheel drive cars, his time a brilliant 5.01 in his Mk2 Escort.  Maurice Moffett did 5.12 in his Starlet.

Some further group N times include – Frank Wray 5.02.  Willie Fannin 5.02. Alan Ring 5.00. James Stafford, running at 58, did 5.01. PJ McGrath 5.03. Michael McColgan 5.19. Ian Barrett disputed his time, it was 5.01 on his watch but 5.08 on the card.  This now becomes slightly academic as we are getting news that Ian’s Lancer was stuck in a stage 2 ditch for over a minute.  Further news from Stage 2, Partry Mountain, is that Breen was again fastest. Willie Fannin’s group N Impreza stopped 4 miles into the stage. Martin Doherty dropped back a little bit with an overshoot. Kevin Kelleher is still having turbo response troubles. Sean Devine lost a fair bit of time with a broken drive shaft on his Impreza WRC which will certainly knock him out of the top 10. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net