RALLY NEWS NO.2 The Mall Armagh/Friday 6.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2 Ivy Hill
1st (17) Kris Meeke/Glenn Patterson (Citroen C2) 15.51.8
2nd (4) Peadar Hurson/Damien Connolly (Impreza WRC) 15.52.1
3rd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 15.56.5
4th (13) Gareth Jones/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 15.58.8
5th (25) Garry Jennings/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 16.00.3
6th (3) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 16.05.0
7th (20) Gwyndaf Evans/Huw Lewis (Lancer N) 16.08.2
8th (14) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 16.09.1
9th (16) Ryan Champion/Craig Thorley (Lancer N) 16.09.3
10th (15) Rory Galligan/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 16.11.4

This Ulster Rally got off to an unfortunate start when No.2 seed Tim McNulty crashed on the opening stage. Tim’s Subaru got out of line at the jump immediately after Todd’s Leap. Fortunately Tim and co driver Anthony Nestor were reportedly pretty shaken but OK. This meant that just one car, Eugene Donnelly’s Corolla WRC, got through the stage competitively. Eugene felt that he had a fairly scrappy run. All the drivers then headed to stage 2, Ivy Hill. All the drivers got a nominal time, Eugene’s time actually for stage 1. Eugene reported after that stage 2 that “It was just OK, it was pretty slippy in the middle and I don’t know if we made the best tyre choice”.

Sensation of that 2nd stage was Kris Meeke, fastest in his Super 1600 Citroen, the young man from the Bush crossroads just saying “That was on the button”.

Eamonn Boland’s co driver Francis Regan must have felt pretty at home at stage finish. Glens of Antrim man Francis is a great lover of goats and there were two miniature goats spectating in the field beside the Stop Control as Eamonn reported a good clean run. Peadar Hurson felt that his Impreza was very wallowy but he still set a very good time. Gareth Jones said that he had a good enough run. Ray Breen felt that his stage wasn’t great, he was still dialling himself in.

Garry Jennings, on his first real stage in a world rally car felt that the brakes had gone off a bit and he also had some intercom troubles. Maurice Gass came through on schedule, his time a few seconds off the pace, Maurice struggling to get used to a new clutch in the car. Emma McKinstry commented about her first run in a world rally car “I’m loving it, its so fast”. John Mulholland in the diesel Skoda Fabia recorded a time of 18m07.2s for the 2 stages, John finding the car having loads of torque and he just kept feeding gears into it.

Gwyndaf Evans was the fastest group N driver through the stage with Mark Higgins just a fraction behind. Mark had an accident in his rally car just before the start and said “The lads did a brilliant job the get the damage repaired, the ste4ering is still a bit vague but we’re OK”.

Rory Galligan commented “with the delays at stage 2 I struggled to get going”. Ryan Champion said “We had a good run but the brakes went off a bit towards the end”. Stuart Jones and Seamus Leonard both felt they were a bit cautious, probably as a result of their Manx accidents. Roy White was trying different brake pads and he felt that the brakes didn’t bed in very quickly. Phillip Morrow had a good run and he is 14th overall, just behind Roy White, while Seamus Leonard was 12th Colm Murphy 11th. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (with thanks to Michael Patterson) www.rallynews.net
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