RALLY NEWS NO.2 Kirkistown – Saturday 12.45

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2
1st (9) Denis Biggerstaff/Barry Fox (Impreza WRC) 6.14.2
2nd (6) Charlie Donnelly/Pat O'Kane (Corolla WRC) 6.15.4
3rd (5) Kenny McKinstry/Camillus O'Neill (Impreza WRC) 6.19.8
4th (10) Kevin Barrett/Johnny McGonigle (Impreza WRC) 6.20.3
5th (7) Kevin Lynch/Raymond Hill (Impreza WRC) 6.20.7
6th (3) Gwyndaf Evans/Paul Kiely (Lancer N) 6.21.3
7th (12) Derek McGeehan/Charlie Donaghy (Corolla WRC) 6.22.0
8th (18) Stephen & Pamela Moore (Focus WRC) 6.23.6
9th (20) Brendan O'Hagan/John Rowland (Focus WRC) 6.23.7
10th (8) Glenn Allen/Leon McCrystal (Corolla WRC) 6.24.1
11th (17) Emma McKinstry/Ryan Rogers (Impreza WRC) 6.27.1
Late News: Car 50 Eoin McErlean going hard could be coming on to l/board in GpN Lancer.

Kevin Lynch/Raymond Hill led after the first stage but their KPL Subaru slid on to the grass on the 2nd stage and as the seconds ticked away Kevin sank from 1st to 5th. There was no damage and KPL as he is fondly known is going out on a massive charge to try and pull back time. It may be a day of fun and fund raising for the new RSMA Fund and also to help Christopher Rogers with his trip to China for medical treatment but the top drivers are so ultra competitive they still want to win.

Denis Biggerstaff had a slight overshoot and a part spin on the first stage but had a good run on the 2nd. Charlie Donnelly was looking very determined at the end of the 2nd stage and he is certainly going to try and win this rally. Kenny McKinstry had a huge spin on the first stage and then was fastest on the 2nd. Kenny is driving an ex Solberg WRC S11. He says the car is quite an animal compared to anything he has had before, with a huge kick off the anti lag and ultra low European specification suspension. Still, as that stage 2 time demonstrates, when it works it really works. Eugene Donnelly is setting a great pace in the OO Corolla and indeed if his times were counting would be fighting for the lead. We said earlier that Darren McCarthy was co driving for Eugene, it transpires it is actually Darren’s brother Brian who is sitting in. Robert Dunlop/Pamela Ballantine are in the OO Escort and they are having an absolute ball!

Kevin Barrett had a good run to hold 4th place while Gwyndaf Evans in 6th continues to lead the group N category. Gwyndaf remarked at the end of his 2nd stage “Its even slippier now”. Derek McGeehan is driving Liam McCarthy’s Corolla so he is being a bit careful with it and is doing well to hold 7th. Stephen Moore in 8th is still settling in to his new Focus. Brendan O’Hagan in 9th said “We were nearly away a wheen of times!” Loosely translated that means he found it pretty slippy! Following a fairly disastrous opening stage, Andres Nesbitt and George Tracey got their act together on stage 2, their fabulous little Peugeot stopping the clock on 3.14.3, well on the pace.

Glenn Allen is still having some sort of clutch slip problems with his Corolla otherwise having a good run. Just outside the leaderboard is Emma McKinstry and then John McKeown. John had been up in 4th place after stage 1 but he had a spin in his Escort Cosworth and dropped about 10s on stage 2. Raymond Johnston is outside the leaderboard and having a quiet day so far while Brian O’Mahony is taking it easy in his Metro 6R4. Brian, all the way up from Cork, and with Katrina Murphy co driving, is finding the Metro overheating and that is closing down the ECU. Brendan Crealey is driving the ex Rory Galligan Lancer and he said he had a master plan before the start of stage 1 and that was to back off at the end of the long straight and quite it all neat and tidy. He said then that plan went out the window when he arrived about 40 mph too quick and had to take to the grass. At the end of stage 2 after several more moments he reckons he might go on to forest tyres and at least then he could take a short cut across the grass!! Johnny McKenna joked that he was just a passenger on the grass. Connor McCloskey is driving his father Brian’s Lancer today and says he has to keep it polished! Frank Kelly said at the end of his 2nd stage “We’ve had one wee spin on each stage, but this is better crack than I thought it would be!”

Looking back to stage 1 – Trevor Moore was best of the Escorts in 20th place less than a second ahead of Camillus Bradley with Paul Barrett 3rd in his Escort G3.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net