| RALLY
NEWS NO.2 Charterhall Service/Friday evening…late!
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2 Langton
1st (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 3.41.9
2nd (2) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC 3.49.3
3rd (3) Tim McNulty/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 3.51.1
4th (5) Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Lancer N) 3.54.8
5th (7) Gwyndaf Evans/Huw Lewis (Lancer N) 3.55.0
6th (6) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 3.55.3
7th (14) Gareth Jones/James O'Brien (Focus WRC) 3.55.8
8th (10) Jon Ingram/Ian Allsop (Impreza WRC) 3.57.1
9th (25) PJ McDermott/Sean Harris (Impreza WRC) 3.57.2
10th (11) Barry Johnson/Stewart Merry (Impreza WRC) 4.01.9
11th (18) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 4.03.0
12th (19) Roy White/Stephen McAuley (Lancer N) 4.04.1
Following hours of hanging about the top drivers on this Jim Clark Rally
eventually tackled the 2 runs over the short Langton stage and Eugene
Donnelly/Paul Kiely in the Reid Motorsport Subaru set a superb time on
the opening stage to head the field. Eugene’s second stage was again
fastest by quite a long way, but not quite as dominant as his first run
through. Guy Wilks was fastest of the Tesco 99 BRC contenders but by just
a fraction from Gwyndaf Evans and Mark Higgins.
When Eugene Donnelly brought his Impreza into overnight parc ferme someone
remarked. “You weren’t hanging about there Eugene”.
The Tarmac Champion, quick as a flash, replied. “No but I was hanging
about plenty before it”. Eugene went on “We had a great run
through the stage, the car is fantastic, its totally different from the
Circuit and Killarney, back the way it was in Galway. Eddie (Corr) in
Prodrive has pulled out all the stops with the engine and the mapping
and the gearbox and the differentials. The car is lethal, very good”.
Eamonn Boland in 2nd had a good run, while Tim McNulty in the Pierse backed
Subaru reckons his tyres didn’t work very well on the first run,
that the tyres were cold but Tim then said “I’m happy enough
to get through”. There was also a suggestion of the car cutting
out slightly on the road section back here to Charterhall.
Guy Wilks, winner of the first round of the BRC, the Pirelli, said after
the stage. “We had a clean run, steady. I don’t think there
was a right tyre choice for that”. Mark Higgins was reading pace
notes to the commentator through the loud speaker system as he raced through
stage 2, much to co-driver Rory Kennedy’s amusement, as he was reading
the proper notes. Anyway, they had a good run although Mark feels he may
have damaged the exhaust following a heavy landing in the stage. Gwyndaf
Evans had a few dents in the side of his Lancer which was proof of just
how close he was cutting through the chicane.
As ever in the Langton stage the water splash caused a few problems as
well as the general slippiness of the road and Jon Ingram was slowed slightly
when he caught Lorna Smith’s struggling Suzuki. Lorna’s Suzuki
went off the road twice and the front of the car was quite damaged, but
still going under it’s own st4eam without too much time loss. The
Suzuki mechanics have a spare car at their hotel and they reckon they
will get all the damage fixed at first service in the morning. Her team
mate James Wozencroft had a good clean run, reported no real dramas and
he is leading cl.2. Other class leaders include Vesa Mikkola, the young
Finn who is at the Helsinki School of Economics, saying “I am happy
to be doing rallies here I think that was a good example of the stages
tonight. This is my first real asphalt rally”. Vesa leads cl.3 in
his Civic.
Phillip Morrow was running 18 inch tyres on his Lancer, was still settling
down but had a half spin on the first stage. Rob Swann had a spin at the
hairpin on the 2nd run and also stalled his GpN Impreza at the chicane.
Stefan Davies put his Puma up the bank after the water splash and lost
perhaps 10s. Owen Murphy caught up with the diesel Skoda at one point
and lost a few seconds. David Higgins lost time when his new Toyota cut
out on left handers under hard acceleration. More news in the morning.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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