RALLY NEWS NO.4
Refuelling zone near Pettigo/Saturday 1.30
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD
AFTER STAGE 3 Donegal
1st (4) Gareth
MacHale/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 41.01.05
2nd (5) Eugene
Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 41.49.3
3rd (7) Eamonn
Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 41.52.2
4th (6) Kenny
McKinstry/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 42.45.0
5th (2) Chris
Atkinson/Glenn Macneall (Impreza N) 42.46.9
6th (9) Ray
Breen/Andrew Purcell (Focus WRC) 43.13.0
7th (11) Patrick
Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 43.49.7
8th (25) Michael
Curran/Fabian McShane (Lancer N) 43.52.7
9th (17) Aaron
MacHale/Ger McMonagle (Corolla WRC) 45.13.1
10th (1) Daniel
Carlsson/Jonas Andersson (Mitsubishi WRC) 45.19.8
11th (27) John
McGlaughlin/David McElroy (Lancer N) 45.30.8
12th (22) Shaun
Gallagher/Charlie McGinty (Lancer N) 45.33.2
On stage 3 Gareth MacHale set
another fastest time, 6s up on Daniel Carlsson with Eugene Donnelly
a further 4 back and Eamonn Boland another 4s beyond that. Carlsson’s
time brought him from 17th after stage 2 up into 10th,
but closing the gap on the leaders will be a different matter.
Gareth commented when he reached stage finish. “Everything’s OK,
yes we are pushing but not too hard, just keeping the same pace. The
car is good, tyres fantastic”. Eugene Donnelly said. “I was pushing
hard but I think the car is just too old for that type of bumpy
stage.” Daniel Carlsson commented. “No puncture this time, it just
came from nowhere, but this stage was OK. I managed to keep the pace
of MacHale, it was slightly drier but there was more gravel and we
use a slick tyre now”. Interestingly some of the drivers such as
Kenny McKinstry felt the stage was greasier and of course there was
some gravel pulled out from the later cars from the first run.
Still Kenny felt he was taking the jumps and crests harder, but it
didn’t show in his time.
Chris Atkinson is turning in a
superb performance in the Prodrive Group N Subaru, Chris saying “The
car felt really good under braking and generally fast”. Nicolas
Bernardi was running at No.3 in his gpN Lancer but he has pulled
out, the car having suffered a series of small mechanical problems,
apparently the rear differential has now packed up. Eamonn Boland
has had a brilliant run so far to hold 3rd place, Eamonn
reports no problems at all with his Focus WRC. Ray Breen made a slow
enough start but he has got his confidence up now that he is
tackling the stages for the 2nd time, and his times are
improving rapidly. Patrick Elliott has been going well so far but
had a slightly disappointing run through stage 3, the Cavan man
saying there was nothing particularly wrong, it just didn’t click.
Aaron MacHale was slightly slower through the stage than his first
run, Aaron, like McKinstry, a little disappointed because he thought
it felt better. He has been messing about with the suspension on the
Corolla trying to get it to cope with the bumps a bit better.
George Tracey retired from the
rally in stage 2 when his Peugeot 206 WRC slid off the road just
past a farmyard and got beached with bits of fencing wire tangled up
in the wheels. He got the car out eventually, it was relatively
undamaged, but he has now decided to go to the Ireland/Scotland
rugby match in Dublin this afternoon! Paddy White got absolutely no
reconnaissance done at all, and his Impreza WRC is down in 40th
place. He was held up behind Darragh Rafftery’s Subaru which was
stranded across the road with a broken prop shaft.
In Group N Chris Atkinson
leads convincingly. Michael Curran had a poor stage 3, poor by his
standards that is, he forgot to switch on the differential and the
car was on road mode. Not a bad time all the same. John McGlaughlin
had a good run despite damaging the front bodywork and differential
of his Lancer on a jump. Garry Jennings had been 10th
overall but lost 2 minutes getting the transmission changed on his
Lancer at St. Angelo service. Shaun Gallagher is worried about the
transmission on his Lancer and may retire the car, fix the
transmission, take 2 stage times under the super rally rules, and
rejoin in the morning. Just may…the decision has not been finalised.
Emma McKinstry had been going nicely but her Lancer suffered a
puncture in stage 3 with 16km still to go, so she wisely stopped to
change the wheel. Mark Hamilton bashed the front of his Lancer and
was furiously trying to prise the bodywork off the wheel at stage
finish using a piece of stick thingy….
More news later. BRIAN &
LIZ PATTERSON
www.rallynews.net
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