RALLY NEWS NO.4 End of stage 4/Sunday 2.45

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4 Feebagh
1st (1) Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Focus WRC) 31.24
2nd (3) Patrick Elliott/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 31.26
3rd (4) Adrian McElvaney/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 31.43
4th (2) Charlie Donnelly/Paddy Toner (Corolla WRC) 31.45
5th (5) Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza WRC) 31.51
6th (6) Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly (Corolla WRC) 32.01
7th (8) Michael Barrable/M Morrissey (Focus WRC) 32.17
8th (11) Martin Doherty/Andrew Cullen (Impreza WRC) 32.44
9th (10) Aaron MacHale/Craig Parry (Corolla WRC) 32.46
10th (7) Kevin Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 32.50
11th (12) Hugh M Doherty/Michael McBride (Impreza WRC) 33.15
(14) Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Impreza N12) 33.15

BREAKING NEWS…..leaderboard upset after stage 5 shows Charlie Donnelly fastest to lead the rally from Adrian McElvaney. Breen had a problem in the stage and dropped almost 30s. Patrick Elliott’s Subaru had a front puncture, tyre off rim – stage time at minute unknown. Donnelly’s gear change trouble fixed – it was a wire off the actuator on top of the box.

Leaving service after stage 3 Ray Breen was tying with Patrick Elliott for the lead and then in stage 4 Feebagh current Dunlop National Champion Breen clocked in a fastest time to move into a 2s lead over Elliott. Breen stiffened the suspension slightly on his Focus WRC and was pleased with the results. Patrick Elliott thought he had gone well, in fact he did go well, but Breen went just that wee bitt better. Charlie Donnelly on the other hand slipped from 3rd overall to 4th, his Corolla WRC giving problems with the paddle gear change on that 4th stage. Interestingly when Glenn Allen arrived a couple of cars later in his similar Corolla WRC he told us “The car is sliding about all over the place, I think the tyres are too hard a compound and I know Charlie Donnelly is one the same ones so I’m sure he’s having the same problem”. Charlie may have been, but he didn’t say, he was pretty preoccupied with the gear change problem.

Adrian McElvaney arrived into the control in a real lather of sweat, thought he had gone harder and couldn’t quite believe the times of the cars on front. Just for the record Breen covered the 14km in 7m14s. Elliott 7.16. Allen 7.26. Maguire 7.27. McElvaney 7.28. Although Maguire is only 5th overall at the minute he is very much on the pace. Michael Barrable has upped his speed a bit and his time was 7.30. Aaron MacHale has stiffened the suspension on his Corolla WRC and he was a lot happier. Hugh M Doherty felt his Impreza was better, the mechanics seem to have solved the vibration trouble, and the dashboard readout was functioning OK. Sean Devine’s Subaru didn’t appear at the end of stage 4 although we waited for almost 30 cars and he should have been 9th on the road.

In Group N Alan Ring was fastest through SS4 by 2s over Willie Fannin so in overall terms Willie is 6s back which is still pretty good going on his first run in an N12 Subaru. Ring reported a vibration in his brakes earlier, got the mechanics to change the discs and all is now well. Kevin Kelleher finished the stage with a reasonable time but the Clonakilty man reckons his rally is over for today, as his Lancer turbo has gone.On top of his earlier puncture this means that Kevin can almost certainly say goodbye to his group N on the Dunlop series for the moment. PJ McGrath had a good run through stage 4 but is still a fair bit behind the leading pair. Ian Barrett also had a good stage, but he is almost 40s behind leader Ring. In the Modified section Maurice Moffett continues to lead, and indeed was fastest through stage 4 despite having a concern over his front tyres. Enda Keenan was 6s down on Moffett. Trevor Lancashire a further 8s back for that one stage. In overall terms Moffett’s total is 33.28. Keenan 34.06. Lancashire 34.10. Paddy Boyle had a slowish time by his standards through the stage and his total is 34.37. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with a little help from our in-the-field correspondent Eugene Donnelly!)