RALLY NEWS NO.8 Ballinasloe Service/Sunday 11am

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 10 Eglish
1st (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 1.14.46.7
2nd (1) Marcus Gronholm/Timo Rautiainen (Focus WRC) 1.14.49.4
3rd (2) Gareth MacHale/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 1.16.31.2
4th (4) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 1.16.54.0
5th (8) Kevin Lynch/Gordon Noble (Focus WRC) 1.17.10.6
6th (3) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 1.17.11.9
7th (14) Stephen Murphy/MJ Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 1.17.31.5
8th (16) Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Focus WRC) 1.18.18.6
9th (12) Ray Breen/Damien Morrissey (Focus WRC) 1.18.36.7
10th (11) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 1.18.38.5

Marcus Gronholm was fastest through this Sunday opening stage by just under 3s from Eugene Donnelly with Gareth MacHale a further 6s back. By dint of leading overnight Eugene Donnelly is first on the road in his new Subaru and the Tarmac Champion told us when he arrived at Ballinasloe service. “Great run, no chances taken, a few of the puddles were frozen over but it wasn’t slippy like yesterday. I think Marcus has taken 3s but I’m still happy with the run”. For his part former World Champion Marcus said. “That was a very quick stage, but the grip was not so bad”. One of Marcus’ Ford team also said that they were going to put a few extra cuts on the tyres, that they reckon there will be some mud pulled out on the stage by the later cars, and when they tackle the stage for the second time it could be very muddy.

Gareth MacHale said. “We had a good quick clean run, it went well”. Fourth placed Eamonn Boland reported “not a bother”. While Kevin Lynch in 5th said. “We’re getting there slowly but surely.” This was in reference to Kevin finding his new Focus very different from his Impreza. Mark Higgins was another very unhappy with the handling of his car yesterday, said it was a bit better today but he needs to get his confidence back. Stephen Murphy lost a few seconds with a major 5th gear slide. Michael Barrable in 8th has some clutch troubles and said his Focus is twitchy on the straights, that there is something wrong. Ray Breen in 9th has a misfire in his Focus. While Patrick Elliott in 10th had a good run. Patrick had the engineers remap the differentials this morning and felt his new Subaru was better. Austin MacHale has had the gear cluster changed in his Focus, but lost a few seconds when he got held up by Gareth Jones, the young Welshman’s new Focus suffering a punctured tyre.

In Group N James Foley is out on his own now, James working hard at finding the limit of his Lancer’s new suspension. James said the new set up is really great. Roy White had been 2nd in gpN and Garry Jennings 3rd but both drivers retired on the road run from Galway to the stage. Roy White’s Lancer broke its gearbox. Garry Jennings had the turbo changed in his Lancer but in the process some wires must have touched together, or something, and shorted out the ECU which is now fried! This leaves Kevin Kelleher 2nd group N,, Damien Toorish 3rd, Kevin O’Donoghue 4th, Trevor Cathers 5th and current Tarmac GpN Champion Colm Murphy 6th in his Subaru. Colm lost a lot of time yesterday with a puncture. He is trying out new tyres, and is gradually getting into the way of them. He set a couple of fastest gpN times yesterday afternoon. Paul Dempsey is just outside the leading group and is having a good run although he lost a few seconds this morning when he spun his Impreza.

Further stori3es this morning include: George Cullen pulling out of the rally following delays yesterday while some retirements include Paul Purtill, the ALMC winner from last weekend, rolling his Escort on stage 6. John Mulholland crashed the diesel Skoda and he went over maximum lateness.

Donegal crew Brian Brogan/Joe Friel lead the National part of the rally in their red Escort from Manus Kelly and Tom Holton 3rd, Holton had some major delays yesterday. Overnight class leaders include: Enda Hallanan in his Civic. Mike Carty in a Civic Type R. Andrew Gambe in his Micra. Adrian McBride in his Peugeot.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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