RALLY NEWS NO.7 Omagh Service/Saturday 5pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 – END OF LEG 1
1st (2) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 54.38.0
2nd (4) Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle (Impreza WRC) 54.46.4
3rd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 55.02.9
4th (5) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 55.28.0
5th (9) Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Focus WRC) 55.35.0
6th (6) Kevin Lynch/David Moynihan (Focus WRC) 55.44.9
7th (3) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 56.11.8
8th (10) Stephen Murphy/MJ Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 56.33.1
9th (7) Peadar Hurson/Michael Orr (Impreza WRC) 57.07.3
10th (12) Sean Devine/Paul McGlaughlin (Impreza WRC) 57.38.9

There has been a fantastic race over the stages this afternoon, the warm dry roads meaning very high speeds. Mark Higgins was fastest through stage 6, Mary Gray, to continue his domination with Kris Meeke a couple of seconds down through the 8.1 mile stage, and Eugene Donnelly a further couple of seconds back behind young Meeke. Mark commented just before he went into service to have his Subaru refettled for tomorrow’s 6 special stages. “There’s life in the old dog yet, but there’s not a lot left, its very fast out there”. Kris Meeke is 8.4s behind the British Champion and he said. “Every junction there is some wheel spin out of the tight stuff, it seemed OK this morning for 2 stages but I don’t think its quite right and the Kenny McKinstry boys are going to change the gearbox now”.

Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly said “We’re flying, but its not fast enough, everything seems OK, the tyres, everything’s perfect, but they (Higgins & Meeke) are going very hard. I suppose its all down to the driving. Its difficult to know how hard to push, but I’ve no excuses. We tried another tweak at the start of those stages, and one mile in the car felt great, the boys in the helicopter are radioing that we are 3 and 4 seconds up halfway through the stage, and then we’re down at the end. I just don’t understand it”.

Tim McNulty in 4th place looked completely wrecked when he got out of his Pierse Subaru here at service. He looked as if his temperature was sky high and was totally drained. Its remarkable that he’s in 4th place, just 26s down on Donnelly. Andreas Mikkelsen reported another good run through stages 5 and 6, the young Norwegian very close to the fastest times. Kevin Lynch in 6th is a lot happier with his Focus now than he was at the start and his times are also getting closer and closer to the top. Eamonn Boland in 7th said “We had a bad morning, I spun off at 2 junctions, couldn’t believe it, that hasn’t happened in 10 years”. Stephen Murphy in 8th had another good run. Peadar Hurson in 9th damaged a tyre in stage 5 and then had to drive stage 6 still with the damaged tyre as there was no time to change the wheel. Sean Devine in 10th had a little bit of a soft brake pedal otherwise a good run. Martin Doherty in 12th has kept it all together well during the day while Gareth Jones in the Reid Transport Focus WRC also had a good run. Gareth’s total 57.45.6 which provisionally puts him in 11th place, just ahead of Martin Doherty.

In Group N Seamus Leonard has led from the start, Seamus saying “I’ve enjoyed the day but it was a bit of a learning curve as I was trying new tyres”. 2nd in GpN Colm Murphy said “It was very gravelly through that last stage, we were up banks and down ditches but all the panels are in one piece, that’s a good sign”. Roy White, 3rd in group N, remarked “The car is handling fine now but it doesn’t seem to be pulling so well out of the junctions”. Further gpN stories include – Willie Fannin retired in stage 5. Kevin O’Donoghue has got a stomach upset but still well in the hunt. John McGlaughlin is 22s down on Roy White but glad to get through the day. Just to recap on the National Rally – Glenn Allen leads from Raymond Johnston, Stephen Moore 3rd and Neil McCance 4th and leading GpN.

More news in the morning: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd)
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