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RALLY NEWS NO.10 Milford Service/Saturday 4.15
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 11 Lough Keel
1st (1) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroen C4 WRC) 1.26.15.3
2nd (2) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 1.26.33.0
3rd (11) Kevin Lynch/David Moynihan (Focus WRC) 1.29.11.5
4th (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 1.29.48.8
5th (16) Paul Harris/Eugene O'Donnell (Corolla WRC) 1.31.47.7
6th (17) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 1.33.08.7
7th (24) Hugh M Doherty/Michael McBride (Impreza WRC) 1.34.11.3
8th (26) Seamus Leonard/Gerry McVeigh (Lancer N) 1.34.17.4
9th (61) PJ McDermott/Sean Harris (Impreza WRC) 1.34.38.8
10th (29) Garry Jennings/Damien Connelly (Lancer N) 1.35.14.0
11th (158) Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 1.35.25.0
12th (22) Kevin Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 1.35.36.1
Stage 11, Lough Keel, meant the drivers moving to different terrain, however
the different type of roads around Milford has made no difference to the
hard charging Loeb and his Citroen was 7s faster than Higgins in his Subaru
through the test. Kevin Lynch was a further 2s slower and Eugene Donnelly
another 3s back. Admittedly, Higgins seems to be making Loeb’s job
a whole lot easier by fumbling the ball. On that stage 11 Mark overshot
a junction and had to hand brake the car around in an escape road and
then hand brake again to get back in the right direction. So all in all
he reckons he lost between 7 and 10s. Mark commented. “I’m
quite unhappy with myself”. By the look of the expression on his
face that was quite an understatement. Sebastien Loeb didn’t say
much but he seemed happy enough with his stage.
Eugene Donnelly stalled at a hairpin and lost a few seconds, and of course
Eugene admitted that he had to pick the hairpin with all the spectators,
thousands of them! Otherwise most of the top runners had a good clear
run, but there were some problems. Denis Biggerstaff and his co driver
Paul McGee were reportedly uninjured following a major crash on the flying
finish of stage 11, their Subaru damaged and going no further. Seamus
Devine slid his Impreza WRC sideways and damaged the rear, is continuing.
Just outside the leaderboard – Stuart Darcy is going well and on
a total of 1.35.54.8 and is 3rd in GpN. Mike Curran is on 1.36.12.7. James
Cullen 1.36.13.3.
In the Fiesta Sporting Trophy Conor Harvey now leads by just over a second
from Alastair Fisher with Jonathan Greer 11s back, Jonathan having clipped
a wall with his Fiesta on Fanad and bent the rear beam. That was being
replaced at service after Knockalla. Alastair Fisher led after stage 3
and it is all very close indeed. (Our thanks to Ciara Conlan for the Fiesta
information).
On the International further news is that Willie John Dolan has retired
his GpN Impreza when one of the differentials blew. Tom Holton & Francis
Kenny have retired their Celica from the National Rally. They overshot
a junction, Tom hand braked the car round and caught a wheel which pulled
out a drive shaft. Oil leaked out and there was a fire – sounds
dramatic – but the damage isn’t too bad.
Class leaders in the International after stage 10 include: Eugene Meegan
leads cl.3 in his Civic from Christopher Boyce also in a Civic. Seamus
Gallagher leads cl.6 in his Saxo from Paddy Walker (Peugeot): Brian Pat
Doherty (Escort Maxi) leads Cl.7 from young Toni Kelly, Toni going great
guns on her first run in the new Honda Civic Type R. Andrew Gamble leads
cl.5 in his Micra from the similar Nissan of Martin Leonard. JP Logue
leads cl.2 in his Civic from James Wozencroft in the Suzuki Swift Sport.
In the National Rally Phil Collins has a 16s lead over Damien Gallagher
with Brian Brogan 3rd, Seamus O’Connell 4th, Rodney Wilton 5th and
Martin McGee 6th – all in Escorts. Robbie Peoples is 7th also in
an Escort and Paul Gallagher 8th even though co driver Karl Reid had the
gear lever of their Corolla in his hand when they arrived into service!
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (with thanks to Michael Patterson):
www.rallynews.net
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