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RALLY NEWS NO.5 End of stage 7/Sunday 5.15
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 7 Ladies Brae
1st (1) Aaron MacHale/Killian Duffy (Focus WRC) 54.49
2nd (5) Charlie Donnelly/Herbie Blackburn (Corolla WRC) 54.51
3rd (8) Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza WRC) 55.16
4th (6) Sean Devine/Damien Connolly (Impreza WRC) 55.25
5th (14) Michael Curran/Fabian McShane (Lancer N) 57.14
6th (172) PJ McDermott/Sean Harris (Impreza WRC) 57.19
7th (20) Ian Barrett/Eoin O'Flaherty (Impreza N) 57.27
8th (165) Owen Murphy/Liam Brennan (Lancer N) 57.52
9th (24) Gary McPhillips/Mark Tierney (Escort) 59.05
10th (25) Brian O’Mahony/John Higgins (Clio) 59.32
(38) Paul Kiely/Pat McSharry (Lancer N) 59.32
Charlie Donnelly set 2 more fastest times through stages 6 and 7, Lough
Easkey and Ladies Brae, with Aaron MacHale 7s down through stage 6 and
2s down through stage 7 which leaves Aaron leading by 2s with just one
stage to go. Weather conditions have again been mixed but not too bad,
Donnelly commenting at the end of stage 7 “We got the tyres right
for those ones, we were on too hard a rubber early this morning but its
all coming good now”. For Aaron the Lough Easkey stage is new to
him and it is a pretty difficult place and to keep within touching distance
of Donnelly there was good going. Niall Maguire also had a good run as
did Sean Devine, the pair holding 3rd and 4th but not making any impression
on the two cars in front.
Michael Curran set superb times through those Lough Easkey and Ladies
Brae stages to extend his group N lead over Ian Barrett with Owen Murphy
3rd, just a fraction behind the 2 in front. Paul Kiely had a good run
over the Lough Easkey stage but was a few seconds down on the Ladies Brae,
he still holds 4th in group N. In the 2 wheel drive section Gary McPhillips
is putting up a superb performance to hold his place in the top 10 and
is now over a minute ahead of Wesley Patterson in 2nd place. Wesley had
an overshoot on the top of Ladies Brae and was worried in case the engine
stalled as the starter motor isn’t working.
John Price is the highest placed of the MSA Asphalt Championship contenders,
John on a total of 1.00.21, which would place him inside the top 20. Stephen
Simpson in the Hyundai WRC is on a total of 1.01.27. Joe McHugh has gone
well over the last few stages in his Escort Cosworth having been held
up earlier in the rally by other cars having problems. Brian O’Mahony
is leading his class in his Clio and had a good run over the Ladies Brae
stage.
We mentioned earlier that John Cairns had retired, it appears his Subaru
was sidelined following an accident. Looking back a few stages some of
the class leaders included: Gary McPhillips (Cl.14): Brian O’Mahony
(Cl.6): Joe McHugh (Cl.15): Brian Armstrong (Cl.12): Wesley Patterson
(cl.13): Raymond Conlon (Cl.1): Adrian Foley (Cl.10): Pat Callanan (Cl.7):
Adrian Cannon (Cl.2): Raymond Gilleece (Cl.3): Andrew Lang (Cl.9): Adam
Clews (Cl.5): Kenneth McHale (Cl.1):
More news after final stage: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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