| RALLY NEWS NO.3 Service/Ballyvourney/Saturday 2.15
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4 Mullaghanish
1st (5) Keith Cronin/Anthony O'Conaill (Lancer N) 20.58.2
2nd (2) Brian McGillin/David Doherty (Hyundai WRC) 20.59.3
3rd (1) Stephen Moore/Tony McHugh (Focus WRC) 21.11.5
4th (6) Michael O'Brien/Matthew Pearce (Focus WRC) 21.24.1
5th (4) Kevin O'Kane/Martin Brady (Impreza WRC) 21.53.0
6th (8) James Murphy/John Brennan (Escort WRC) 21.54.8
7th (14) Colin Britton/Arthur Kierans (Lancer N) 21.56.4
8TH (18) Adrian Hetherington/Gary Nolan (Escort) 22.03.3
9TH (21) Emma McKinstry/Kenny Hull (Impreza WRC) 22.08.9
10TH (16) Frank Kelly/Liam Brennan (Escort) 22.09.2
On his home patch young Keith Cronin fairly flung his Lancer through stages 3 and 4, Derreenaling and Mullaghanish. At the last service Cronin reported a cracked anti roll bar bracket on his Lancer. That was welded up successfully and he had no troubles through stages 3 and 4 and despite taking the lead the young man insisted that he was driving comfortably within himself, that indeed his Mitsubishi was pushing the nose a a bit at the start of stage 4 but then towards the end of the stage he admitted that he pushed hard. Stephen Moore had led but his Focus WRC incurred a puncture in stage 3 and then in stage 4 the wipers ceased which made life slightly difficult, particularly after the big ford. Stephen commented. “It felt quite dangerous in places in there especially over the big crests”.
Brian McGillin had a good run to move from 3rd to 2nd, Brian finding the surfaces very loose and he tried to just steady it up. Michael O’Brien, originally from Churchtown outside Mallow but now resident outside London, admitted that he also took it very steady over those difficult stages. Kevin O’Kane in 5th place didn’t like the roads at all and that was reflected to a certain degree in his times. James Murphy got the brakes fixed on his Escort WRC and improved from 11th to 6th on those 2 stages.
Colin Britton had a good run and he also improved, from 10th to 7th, Colin admitting feeling a little rusty at the start today following a lay off from rallying for a while. Perhaps Colin’s job was made a little easier as some of his closest group N rivals ran into trouble on that loop of stages. Cathal Rogers burst the radiator of his Lancer in the ford and was lucky to make service. Cathal’s total is now 22.34.0. Peter McCullagh slid his Lancer off the road. Pat O’Connell’s Lancer was also stopped, reason unknown. Young Eamonn McElvaney was having electrical problems with his Lancer, it wouldn’t pull him through one of the corners and slid into a ditch and got stuck. Alwyn Jobb was going well over the first couple of stages in 15th o/a and his lancer is reportedly stopped on a road section, but of course he may get going. Emma McKinstry lost a wee bit of her momentum and has slipped a couple of places but reports no problems. Her team mate John McGaffin has speed up and was 3s faster than Emma through stage 4.
Adrian Hetherington continues to dominate the 2 wheel drive category although Frank Kelly certainly hasn’t given up, his earlier illness not quite so bad now. Frank is just 6s behind Hetherington. Seamus O’Connell/Brian Duggan are not a mile away in their Escort either, 5s down on Kelly, but Seamus and Brian are finding the Escort gearing to be slightly wrong for today’s stages. In the Fiesta Sporting Trophy Jonny Greer has 11s in hand over Alastair Fisher after 3 stages with Tadgh Buckley a further 19s back, then Conor Harvey 4th, Kyle Orr 5th, William Mavitty 6th and Barry Greer struggling in 7th with no 2nd gear on his example. Fisher had led initially but some sort of misunderstanding between himself and the co driver on stage 2 cost him about 10s.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
