The onset of rain has changed the emphasis at
the front of this Rally of the Lakes with Eugene Donnelly now
setting fastest times, and he has squeezed ahead of Derek McGarrity
in the overall leaderboard, but is still 59s behind Tim McNulty
and the lead. Eugene was just a couple of seconds faster than
McNulty through stage 11 and then stage 12, but those couple of
seconds are making no significant difference to the gap to the
lead. If anything Tim McNulty looked a little uptight when he
brought his Pierse backed Subaru into service here on the Cork
road but said. “No problems, keeping it steady, everything
is alright”. Perhaps the big Meath man has every right to
be a little apprehensive. On the surface it would appear that
he has his 2nd International win almost within his grasp, but
reports coming back from the next stage, the difficult Molls Gap
test, are that the fog and low cloud are descending as well as
the rain and it won’t be easy up there. After that there
is the equally tough Ballaghbeama test before the fast flowing
Caragh Lake stage, then the final blast over Kilgobnet.
Eugene Donnelly commented. “I’m not
really doing anything different, the rain suits me I suppose and
suits the car. But I really just want to get through this rally
and hopefully get some points in the championship”. Derek
McGarrity, having slipped from 2nd to 3rd said. “I just
feel like crap with this stomach bug. The car is going well, better
than me” Gareth Jones in 4th place was 3rd fastest through
stage 12 and equal 2nd fastest through 13, so the young Welshman
is still piling on the pressure and reported all well with his
Subaru. Stephen Murphy in 5th has had wiper problems with his
Impreza WRC, otherwise OK.
Eamonn Boland rounds off the top 6, Eamonn wondering
if he can move up the leaderboard before the day is out in his
quest for Pirelli Tarmac c/ship points. In a way he doesn’t
have a huge incentive as the only driver he can realistically
catch at the moment would appear to be Murphy and he is not registered
for the c/ship. Denis Cronin is still keeping a weather eye on
his Subaru engine, it was losing a little water yesterday so he’s
hoping it will be OK. Aaron MacHale in 8th says he is having a
good run now.
Seamus Leonard in 9th says he is still flat out
and holding on to his Group N lead. Alan Ring made a real charge
this morning to try and close the gap on Leonard but an overshoot
in stage 12 when he arrived just too fast at a junction, and then
stalled the engine, cost quite a few seconds. James Foley is 13th
o/a and holding 3rd group N with his Lancer. Roy White was 4th
gpN but a broken drive shaft in stage 11 and then a puncture in
12 has knocked him back behind Kevin O’Donoghue. Willie
Fannin was making a bit of a charge in his gpN Impreza but he
has now dropped back, his engine smoking badly.
Guy Woodcock continues to have a good run in his
Escort Maxi and is now up to 17th o/a and leading class 7. Keith
Cronin is flying along in his little Peugeot 2056 and leads cl.6
and 20th o/a. Brian O’Mahony is 2nd cl.6, his Puma hampered
through the Saturday stages with an ECU/computer problem. Eugene
Meegan leads cl.3. Local Nissan dealer Dave Randles is 2nd in
class 7 behind Woodcock, Dave 26th o/a and having a good run.
In the Argentina WRC Loeb leads from Solberg with Galli 3rd. Matthew
Wilson is 9th and Gareth MacHale, co driven by Killarney’s
Paul Nagle, is 11th. Nasser Al-Attiyah with Co. Antrim’s
Chris Patterson co-driving, is leading the Production World championship
category and 14th o/a in his Subaru Impreza. More news later.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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