RALLY NEWS NO.6 Omagh Service/Saturday 4.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 5 Gallen Bridge
1st (2) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 46.32.4
2nd (4) Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle (Impreza WRC) 46.38.1
3rd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 46.51.9
4th (5) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 47.10.2
5th (9) Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Focus WRC) 47.23.0
6th (6) Kevin Lynch/David Moynihan (Focus WRC) 47.32.7
7th (3) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 47.55.9
8th (10) Stephen Murphy/MJ Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 48.12.8
9th (7) Peadar Hurson/Michael Orr (Impreza WRC) 48.31.8
10th (12) Sean Devine/Paul McGlaughlin (Impreza WRC) 49.00.5

On the second run over the Gallen Bridge stage it was Kris Meeke fastest, Meeke a full 15s faster than his first run over the stage, but more importantly 1.5s up on Mark Higgins this time and 6s up on Donnelly. Tim McNulty also had a good run to maintain 4th while Andreas Mikkelsen turned in a time just a 10th of a second slower than Eugene Donnelly, so the young Norwegian is still very much in the picture.

Mark Higgins said at stage finish “Very happy with the car, tyres working well”. Eugene Donnelly was in a hurry to get on up the road so we didn’t get a comment. Kris Meeke said “We’ve been adjusting the differentials, there’s more to come and although the car is good I’m not sure I’ve got this differential thing quite right”.

Kevin Lynch was another to have a good time, the Dungiven man saying “Its much better now, we’re getting there”. Peadar Hurson said “We’re getting in the groove but there is so much grip its almost impossible to know where the limit is”. Further down the list Stephen Murphy is fairly secure in 8th place, his gear mechanism fixed since the last stage while Sean Devine, Martin Doherty and Gareth Jones are having a great race between themselves for the last place on the leaderboard. In Group N Seamus Leonard was again fastest through stage 5 from Colm Murphy to lead the category from Colm with Roy White 3rd.

In the National Rally Glenn Allen led after stage 4 from Raymond Johnston with Stephen Moore 3rd, Neil McCance 4th and leading GpN in his Lancer. Seamus Heron was 5th and Camillus Bradley 6th. Interestingly Camillus Bradley has built the first 3 cars in the 2 wheel drive category, that’s Aidan Toner and Fintan McGrady and his own of course.

Glenn Allen said here at service in Omagh “Good stages hey, everything you’d ever want, slow places and fast places”. Glenn was comparing his own time for stage 4 of 12.01.1 as against Eugene Donnelly’s time for stage 4 which was 11.28.5. Mark Higgins did 11.17.4 there and Sean Devine for example did 11.49.2!

Further stories from the National include – Richard Cathcart retired in stage 4 with mechanical problems after several small accidents. Johnny McKenna retired his Lancer when he got a 3 right tightens into 6 right wrong. Ryan Barrett has made a bit of a mess of brother Paul’s Escort G3 when he spun it at a hairpin and also spun at another corner. Ryan took over Paul’s entry in the National when Paul broke his wrist last Saturday on the Spring Rally.

More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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