RALLY NEWS NO.8 End of Barnes Gap/Sunday 11.45

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 7 Barnes Gap
1st (2) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 1.01.47.7
2nd (4) Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle (Impreza WRC) 1.01.51.2
3rd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 1.02.17.4
4th (9) Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Focus WRC) 1.02.51.2
5th (6) Kevin Lynch/David Moynihan (Focus WRC) 1.03.23.8
6th (3) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 1.03.41.8
7th (7) Peadar Hurson/Michael Orr (Impreza WRC) 1.04.37.3
8th (12) Sean Devine/Paul McGlaughlin (Impreza WRC) 1.05.21.8
9th (8) Gareth Jones/Andrew Bargery (Focus WRC) 1.05.26.3
10th (15) Martin Doherty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 1.05.41.8

Kris Meeke was fastest through this morning/s opening stage Barnes Gap by 5s from Mark Higgins, with Eugene Donnelly a further 6s in arrears. Tim McNulty crashed out of 4th place and Stephen Murphy’s Focus WRC slipped outside the leaderboard when he stopped to change a punctured tyre.

Mark Higgins seemed to be under pressure when he brought his Subaru to stage finish, the British Champion feeling that he had perhaps made a wrong tyre choice and also that the stage was a bit scrappy for him. Kris Meeke, who had his Subaru gearbox changed last night, was absolute “on it”. Kris covered the 7.7 miles of that torturous Barnes Gap road in just 7.04 minutes. Conditions were dry although slightly colder than yesterday. Third placed Eugene Donnelly seemed almost a bit resigned to the fact that he is a couple of seconds down now on nearly every stage.

As we said above, Tim McNulty put his Subaru into a field across the valley from the finish and it looks as if the Pierse backed Subaru got out of line over a small crest jump just before a turn square left junction. Andreas Mikkelsen had a really good run and was less than 2s down on Donnelly and that included a slight off road excursion. Kevin Lynch was a full 34s down on Kris Meeke and although Kevin said everything was fine he is not on his usual pace. Eamonn Boland had a good run. Peadar Hurson still feels as if he’s a bit rusty and was too cautious. Sean Devine stalled his Subaru at stage start, also finished the stage with a chunk out of a rim and the brakes on fire. Gareth Jones in the Red Transport Focus WRC was another off the pace, but the young Welshman has no explanation. Martin Doherty had a good run and moves into 10th place in his Subaru. Stephen Murphy was adamant at stage finish that he had not clipped anything to cause the puncture that the tyre had just gone down. He felt that he had a long way to go in this stage so stopped and changed the wheel losing many minutes and 7th o/a.

In Group N Seamus Leonard was once again the pace setter this morning but was just 1s faster than Colm Murphy with Roy White a further 4s back. Conor McCloskey was a further 8s back. In overall terms Leonard leads Group N by almost a minute from Colm Murphy with Roy White a further 3s back. Colm remarked at stage finish that he was no longer trying to catch Seamus but he will not be too far away in case Seamus makes a mistake. As for Leonard, his comment was “That was some wake up call”. Roy White has been doing some further adjustments to his Lancer and is certainly a lot closer to the guys in front. As a matter of interest James Cullen is now running just behind the top cars, James’ Reid Motorsport Lancer delayed for a long time yesterday with an off road excursion and mechanical troubles. Donegal man Hugh Martin Doherty has re-joined the fray this morning under the Super Rally rules.

Finally for now, we have learned that sadly the well known Carlow man Enda Nolan died this morning following a huge battle against illness. Enda was a very well respected and popular competitor with a great love of the sport and indeed competed on the recent Galway International Rally. Our sincere condolences to his family and many friends.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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