| RALLY
NEWS NO.2 Service/Friday/Noon
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 1 Breenagh
1st (2) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 4.19.2
2nd (7) Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Focus WRC) 4.24.1
3rd (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 4.25.7
4th (11) Kevin Lynch/David Moynihan (Focus WRC) 4.26.7
5th (1) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Citroen C4 WRC) 4.28.2
6th (4) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 4.37.2
7th (16) Paul Harris/Eugene O'Donnell (Corolla WRC) 4.38.3
8th (15) Stephen Murphy/MJ Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 4.41.9
9th (26) Seamus Leonard/Gerry McVeigh (Lancer N) 4.43.2
10th (17) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 4.44.0
Some more times…..Tim McNulty 4.59.0: Sean Devine 4.51.0: Kevin
Barrett 4.54.4: Denis Biggerstaff 4.58.0: Hugh M Doherty 4.58.2: Colm
Murphy 4.50.3: Garry Jennings 4.54.2: James Cullen 4.52.2: Willie Fannin
4.53.6: Niall Maguire 4.56.4: Michael Curran 4.57.3: Phil Collins &
Damien Gallagher both on 4.54.6: Just in – PJ McDermot, running
at No.61, did 4.45.4:
World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb brought his Citroen into the end of
the rather wet and misty Breenagh stage, gave the thumbs up to indicate
everything was OK but then was straight on to the phone to his engineers,
so looking at his time there will be a bit of adjustment done to the car
today. Mark Higgins was fastest and said something like “I’m
over the moon with that time, that’s one of the highlights of my
year, to be fastest on the Donegal Rally with Sebastien behind me!”
Young Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen had a brilliant stage time, reporting
no problems. Andreas’ father was in the service area before the
start and told us that Andreas has just finished his exams, has done no
real driving on stages since the Lakes and is a little bit “eager”
this weekend, and he was hoping to keep him cool! Eugene Donnelly said
that he was on a cut slick tyre and he was being a bit cautious.
Andrew Nesbitt stalled his Subaru twice on the start line. Kevin Lynch
felt he had a good run while Tim McNulty lost time with a puncture on
his Subaru. Tim’s engineer Dom Buckley had a fairly hectic few hours
before the start of the rally sorting out a recalcitrant rear diff sensor
on his Subaru. Stephen Murphy felt his Subaru was set too hard and was
moving around on the road. Paul Harris was still getting into the groove
in his hired Corolla. Patrick Elliott was unhappy with he handling of
his Impreza WRC S12, felt the car was too soft. Kevin Barrett had a good
run but was still bedding himself in.
Seamus Leonard was the fastest of the group N runners so far and said.
“I’m happy with that”. Colm Murphy said he was on the
right tyre and everything was OK, but just slightly disappointed with
his time. Martin Brown put his group N Lancer into a ditch on a 6 left
and looked like he was stuck. James Cullen changed the set up of his Lancer
before the rally and reckoned it wasn’t working at all.
It looks like the Reid Motorsport team has expanded even more this weekend
to include the effervescent Pamela Ballantine from UTV/RPM. Pamela is
here working on the rally but Liam Reid has arranged to fly her to Edinburgh
tomorrow night to partake in the “Moonwalk” in aid of Breast
Cancer charities. The walk is 26 miles starting at midnight on Saturday
night and all the participants have to do the walk in their bras, no tops!
Pamela’s is a Reid Motorsport coloured construction with marabou
feathers and two Reid Motorsport Subarus out front covering her dignity.
She promises to model this some time over the weekend before she goes
to Edinburgh and she is determined to be back in time to see Sebastien
Loeb on Atlantic Drive some time on Sunday!
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks
to Michael Patterson)
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