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RALLY NEWS NO.4 Charterhall Service/Saturday 1.45
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 7 Fogo
1st (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 41.04.0
2nd (3) Tim McNulty/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 41.40.1
3rd (2) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC 42.10.7
4th (5) Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Lancer N) 42.57.9
5th (7) Gwyndaf Evans/Huw Lewis (Lancer N) 43.07.8
6th (6) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 43.11.6
Early cars only – no more times as yet
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 Edrum
1st (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 35.13.5
2nd (3) Tim McNulty/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 35.14.2
3rd (2) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC 36.08.7
4th (5) Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Lancer N) 36.50.4
5th (7) Gwyndaf Evans/Huw Lewis (Lancer N) 36.59.0
6th (6) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 37.01.6
7th (25) PJ McDermott/Sean Harris (Impreza WRC) 37.45.1
8th (14) Gareth Jones/James O'Brien (Focus WRC) 37.55.7
9th (10) Jon Ingram/Ian Allsop (Impreza WRC) 38.12.7
10th (8) David Higgins/Ieuan Thomas (Corolla S2000R) 38.15.0
Gwyndaf Evans set a fastest group N time through stage 6 to move ahead
of British Champion Mark Higgins but Guy Wilks still leads the Tesco 99
British championship contingent. While Eugene Donnelly continues to bang
in the fastest times to lead the rally in his Subaru Impreza WRC.
Top contender Barry Johnson retired at the end of stage 5 following a
very heavy landing after the big jumps towards the stage finish which
knocked the wind out of Barry and hurt him, as well as smashing the sump
on the Subaru which consequently went on fire. This caused a delay for
the following cars hence the shortened leaderboard for stage 7. Hopefully
the field will be closed up when the cars leave service.
Eugene Donnelly commented here at service in control. “We had a
good run over the last few stages, we had a better tyre choice but the
roads are still slippy. We pushed hard through Edrum and Fogo, acting
the bollocks in the way, sliding in and out of junctions, finding the
line.” Tim McNulty said that he had picked a softer tyre, thought
the rain was coming in, and had to then preserve the rubber, but happy
to be there or thereabouts. Eamonn Boland had a trouble free run. Guy
Wilks lost a few seconds in stage 6 when he stalled his Lancer at a tight
hairpin right. He explained about the long left hander into it, really
going for it, banging down the gears, touched the hand brake and then
the engine just stopped momentarily. Guy tried to fire the car up but
the anti lag was still switched on and it didn’t like it. He got
going eventually but lost a few seconds.
Gwyndaf Evans commented. “Its good to be at the race, to keep these
guys honest, they are going hard. I know where we are losing a little
time, on the slower corners, but it would take another test to sort it
out”. Mark Higgins commented. “It feels good, but at the same
time we’re struggling, half a second a mile down on Guy. We have
played around with the handling and we’re pushing hard, there’s
not much left”.
Gareth Jones dropped several places on the leaderboard on that loop, his
Focus breaking a rear drive shaft and Gareth couldn’t get the diff
locked on. He also got caught in a heavy rain shower which didn’t
seem to affect the guys in front, has also attacked a few pheasants! Connor
McCloskey got held up quite a long time behind the Barry Johnson incident
and he like many other drivers got caught in very heavy rain through stages
6 and 7. Killarney man Kevin O’Donoghue said he had his wipers on
full speed and still couldn’t see a thing. He said it was so slippy
he would have been quicker on push bike. David Higgins had a torrid time
through those last stages, the oil pressure warning light came on and
he was so busy looking at the dials he thought he had finished the stage
and went straight on at a square left and into a field. Then the temperature
warning light came on on the next stage and he also got caught out on
a jump, thought he wasn’t going fast but was and smashed the Toyota’s
front spoiler. Colm Murphy has his Impreza rear brakes locking on, its
knocking his confidence and he is arriving at every junction, if not backwards
at least sideways. Roy White has changed the ECU on his Lancer, it has
cured the misfire, but the engine is way down on power dropping 20s a
stage and Tipperary man Roy just really wants to go to the pub. Vesa Mikkola
has lost 3mins with a puncture and James Wozencroft lost valuable seconds
with a slow puncture on his Suzuki. Cork man Owen Murphy is up to 11th
o/a in his Lancer from a start number of 48 which can’t be bad.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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