RALLY NEWS NO.3 Portumna Service/Saturday 11.45
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2 Pallas
1st (1) Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen (Focus WRC) 16.38.7
2nd (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 16.57.2
3rd (2) Gareth MacHale/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 17.22.2
4th (6) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 17.30.3
5th (7) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 17.31.5
6th (4) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 17.34.8
7th (12) Ray Breen/Damien Morrissey (Focus WRC) 17.36.8
8th (14) Stephen Murphy/MJ Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 17.38.4
9th (8) Kevin Lynch/Gordon Noble (Focus WRC) 17.43.0
10th (9) Gareth Jones/David Moynihan (Focus WRC) 17.48.8

Through stage 2 former World Champion Marcus Gronholm was again fastest. Just as importantly the Finnish driver seems to be really enjoying his first visit to Ireland and was chuckling when he reached service here in Portumna and recounted. “That was a different type of stage from the first one, not so many crests, but a little dirtier, dry in places but still very slippy, grip is not so good”. Eugene Donnelly is still settling in to his new Subaru, still exploring the limits of the suspension and in overall terms doing well to keep Gronholm in sight….well just about in sight! Gareth MacHale was a bit happier after that 2nd stage. Gareth is still struggling a little with the left hand drive and that Pallas road is very narrow in places, but he was a lot closer to Eugene’s pace on that one than on the opening stage.

Austin MacHale turned in a good time. Austin always goes well on the slippy Galway roads. Even he admitted though that he was finding it very slippy and tricky. Eamonn Boland was also finding it slippy and dropped a few places. Tim McNulty was very cautious on the opening stage but got his act together well on the 2nd. When Tim climbed out of his Pierse Subaru he told us. “I’m happy enough. I had to get the car to the end of the first stage, get the Ulster accident out of my system. We’re picking it up now”. Kevin Lynch said. “I ballsed it up on that 2nd stage, made a complete horlicks of a couple of square corners”. Gareth Jones didn’t have a great time either in the Reid Motorsport Focus and he said. “I’m getting no heat in the front tyres, they are stone cold, its way off”. Mark Higgins is trying to recover from that first stage puncture. Interestingly 3 or 4 drivers have hit the same rock and broken rims. Anyway, when Mark the beautiful Pirelli Subaru into service he said. “I’ve no confidence at all. The car is going very sideways in places”.

Patrick Elliott had an overshoot at one of the tight corners and is still settling in to his new car. Michael Barrable feels he has notchy steering on his Focus and is hoping to get it checked out at service. JJ Fleming hasn’t done a rally for 8 months so wasn’t expecting to be too fast to start with, but his cause wasn’t helped when he caught up with 2 cars on the first stage. George Cullen was another to hit Higgins’ rock and bust a rim, dropping over a minute.

In Group N Roy White was again fastest, by quite a margin from Seamus Leonard with Colm Murphy 3rd and James Foley 4th, just seconds between them. Garry Jennings was again a couple of seconds off the pace but it wasn’t quite as disastrous as stage 1. GpN Tarmac Champion Colm Murphy commented. “Still trying to get used to these new tyres, the car is trying to pass me out, we had big 5th gear slides”. Garry Jennings feels that his turbo may not be performing as well as it should despite showing 1.5 bar boost but he still thinks the car is slow. Interestingly there was a wiring loom problem with this car during the week and it wouldn’t run at all! Roy White thinks that his move up to 18 inch tyres is definitely an improvement over last year. James Cullen who was 4th fastest gpN on the 1st stage has dropped almost 2 plus minutes with an unknown transmission problem. James unsure was to whether the Reid Motorsport Lancer can be sorted until they diagnose the problem. James Foley reckons he is on too hard a tyre.

More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON ..and Michael…www.rallynews.net
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