RALLY NEWS NO.4 End of stage 4/Saturday 2pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4 Flowerhill
1st (1) Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen (Focus WRC) 34.45.3
2nd (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 34.46.4
3rd (4) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 35.52.1
4th (14) Stephen Murphy/MJ Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 35.53.3
5th (3) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 35.58.6 **
6th (8) Kevin Lynch/Gordon Noble (Focus WRC) 36.04.8
7th (12) Ray Breen/Damien Morrissey (Focus WRC) 36.07.8
8th (2) Gareth MacHale/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 36.20.9
9th (16) Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Focus WRC) 36.26.3
10th (11) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 36.51.6

\The slippy conditions are certainly causing the drivers all sorts of problems, even former World Champion Marcus Gronholm spinning his Focus in stages 3 and 4. Marcus was also having some difficulty with the very bright low sun. Gareth MacHale stalled on the start line of that 4th stage and also damaged a fron rim, also had an overshoot in stage 3 so Gareth has dropped down to 8th. Eugene Donnelly was another to lose time, Eugene stalling his Subaru on the start line and then putting the car in the hedge at the first corner. However it wasn’t too disastrous in view of Marcus also having problems. Austin MacHale came to the stage finish with the tyre missing from the left rear rim. Austin lost almost 2 minutes with that puncture which knocks him outside the top 10. Quite a shame as he was up to 4th overall after stage 2 and also set a good time in stage 3. Mark Higgins arrived at stage finish in quite a lather. He had been caught off guard at the start of the stage. This was following Gareth MacHale’s problems. British Rally Champion Mark said. “The timekeeper just stuck the cards in the window with 5s to go. I didn’t have any of the systems switched on”.

Mark went ont o say that he had made some changes to the handling of his Pirelli Subaru and he was a lot happier with it. It is possible that Mark’s time for that stage 4 will be adjusted by 30s which will move him up into 3rd place. Also not happy was Tim McNulty. His Pierse backed Subaru stopped in stage 4 with some sort of engine problem. When we left the finish line after 20 cars there was still no sign of the Subaru. Kevin Lynch said at stage finish. “We’re getting there sir, after about 10 rallies we’ll be right!” Patrick Elliott reckons he was on much too hard a compound tyre. George Cullen had an overshoot and stalled. Stephen Murphy and Ray Breen are both going really well reporting no problems. Jon Ingram was off on a little tight lane section in stage 3 at a square right into square right over bad mud and his Focus went over a low wall. Hugh M Doherty put his Focus WRC slightly off the road at a lane but got going OK although the car seemed to be “crabbing” slightly at the end of the stage.In Group N Roy White is still setting the pace. Roy was 11s faster than James Foley in stage 4 while Garry Jennings was 2 down on Foley with Seamus Leonard a further 1s back. Colm Murphy lost 3 mins. When he was forced to stop and change a punctured tyre. John McGlaughlin’s Lancer also suffered a puncture in that stage. James Foley commented. “Never had so many near offs in one stage”.

More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net

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