RALLY NEWS NO.8 St Angelo Service/Sunday
09.00
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE North West 1
1st (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC)
1.49.25.5
2nd (7) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC)
1.51.30.3
3rd (2) Chris Atkinson/Glenn Macneall (Impreza N)
1.54.08.7
4th (1) Daniel Carlsson/Jonas Andersson
(Mitsubishi WRC) 1.54.57.7
5th (11) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza
WRC) 1.56.26.9
6th (17) Aaron MacHale/Ger McMonagle (Corolla WRC)
1.59.48.7
7th (21) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N)
2.00.24.6
8th (22) Shaun Gallagher/Charlie McGinty (Lancer
N) 2.00.50.3
9th (28) Paul Harris/Eugene O'Donnell (Lancer N)
2.03.17.4
10th (39) Conor McCloskey/Crawford Henderson
(Lancer N) 2.03.37.5
There have been high dramas indeed over the first 2 stages
this morning of this Rally Ireland. Eugene Donnelly started the day
with a 13.4s lead over Gareth MacHale. Gareth MacHale was fastest
in the stage but Eugene still led albeit by a slender 0.7 of a
second. What looked to be a huge battle in store fizzled out on the
next stage when Gareth MacHale’s Focus stopped, reportedly caught
out in the low cloud and fog and is off the road. Further
retirements included Kenny McKinstry, his Subaru WRC stopping with a
presumed mechanical problem at the first junction in stage 7.
Michael Curran finished stage 7 OK, still 2nd in Group N,
and 7th overall, but he did report a damaged 5th
gear following a heavy landing over a jump. News is coming through
that Michael’s Lancer has sadly stopped in stage 8. Also missing at
the end of stage 8 is Ray Breen. More on that later.
Resuming the story of Donnelly and MacHale. At the end of
stage 7 Eugene reported. “We had a good clean run, no heroics. I was
surprised at how dry the roads were and how much grip there was, I
think the front tyres may have gone off just towards the end of the
stage. “ Eugene’s time for the stage was 11.56.3. When Gareth
MacHale came in the clocks had stopped at an extraordinary 11.43.6
for the 21.85km of tortuous Co. Leitrim roads. Co driver Paul Nagle
almost fell out of the Focus clutching his back and gasping “That
was eleven tenths. I’ve hurt myself a bit after a very hard landing
over a jump”. As Paul was getting out one side Gareth had sprung
out the other and was examining damage to the right rear of the
Focus and saying. “We slid wide into a bank, the spoiler’s damage.
There may be damage to the suspension, I don’t know, the car is
wandering”. As he was talking to us Gareth was also dialling up
engineer Tom Gahan to explain and hopefully get repairs arranged for
service. As it transpired Gareth and Paul didn’t get that far.
Unfortunately that was the end of their valiant attempt to win Rally
Ireland for this year.
Further stories from the end of that Leitrim stage outside
Dromahair included – Australian Chris Atkinson, doing such a great
job in the gpN Prodrive Subaru, reporting slippy roads. Swedish
driver Daniel Carlsson said he had no problems at all. Young
Michael Curran reported that big jump and the damage to his
gearbox. There was also bits of black plastic flapping from behind
one of the mudflaps, testimony to a close encounter with a straw
bale. Aaron MacHale is hanging in really well in his Corolla, his
stage times improving step by step. Aaron explaining that they have
been continually adjusting the suspension of the Corolla WRC and its
getting better all the time. Next up should have been Ray Breen but
in fact he lost over 4 minutes in the stage, having spun his Focus
WRC into a bank. This blocked the radiator and the oil coolers –
there was mud and grass everywhere around the grilles. National
Champion Breen finished the stage in quite a lather, his Focus
smelling and sounding very hot indeed. As we said above we have no
time as yet from stage 8 so we await news on that.
Garry Jennings wasn’t happy at stage finish it just didn’t
click for him. Shaun Gallagher’s repairs to the oil pipe behind the
turbo have cured the oil leak but the clutch seems to be damaged and
Shaun says he really just wants to go home. Having said that, he’s 3rd
group N, just 26s behind Jennings. Young Conor McCloskey is
supported by the Fisher Foundation this year and he has come from a
very slow start in the rally to be setting some good times now, not
least through stage 7 where he was 2nd fastest group
N,..certainly from the times we have so far. Conor did report a very
heavy landing at the big jump in 7 but otherwise OK. It is
interesting to see Noel McCarrick and the flying baker from Omagh
John McGlaughlin both running just behind the top cars, although
both were sidelined yesterday, but kept in the event by the Super
Rally rules. David James has retired, having just driven his Focus
into service.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
www.rallynews.net
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