| RALLY NEWS NO.2 Service/Clonmel Race Course/Sunday 2pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4 Lisnamuck
1st (1) Gareth MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 38.11
2nd (7) Jack Sleator/Andrew Purcell (Impreza WRC) 39.22
3rd (4) Kevin Barrett/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 39.27
4th (9) Ian Barrett/Eoin O'Flaherty (Impreza N) 39.52
5th (15) Owen Murphy/Paul Williams (Lancer N) 39.54
6th (6) David James/Jim Crowe (Focus WRC) 39.55
7th (11) James M Stafford/Frank Dwyer (Darrian) 40.01
8th (5) PJ McGrath/Killian Duffy (Impreza WRC) 40.15
9th (31) Gwyn Thomas/Anthony O'Connell (Puma) 40.43
10th (30) Terence O’Shaughnessy/Eugene McGrath (Corolla GT) 40.59
11th (18) Liam Wall/Andy O'Donoghue (Escort) 41.15
Heavy rain showers made the going difficult for the drivers through stages 3 and 4 but through the puddles and the floods Gareth MacHale and his co driver Brian Murphy continued to set the pace in their Focus WRC. Gareth is now over half a minute ahead of 2nd placed Jack Sleator while Kevin Barrett has got over his earlier intercom problems but is still a few seconds a stage slower than Jack Sleator in the battle for 2nd and 3rd places. PJ McGrath was pushing Barrett in the race for 3rd place but PJ got caught out in the rain on stage 4, carrying too much speed into a “6 right 5 left” and crunched the front of his Subaru.
Gareth MacHale commented when he reached service. “There was a lot of standing water, we were being a bit careful”. Kevin Barrett felt that everything was well in his camp and he was a lot happier with the intercoms in the car now fixed. Jack Sleator felt it was very slippy in places but happy enough with his progress.
Ian Barrett continues to lead group N although he cut a left hand corner too tight in stage 3 and punctured a tyre, fortunately it didn’t cost too much time although he did drop 6s to Owen Murphy in the stage. Owen reckons that he has got the suspension sorted out on his Lancer and had a good run through stages 3 and 4 although like many drivers he was caught out on slick tyres in the pouring rain. Trevor & Kenny Bustard are reportedly stopped in stage 4 their Lancer having sustained some frontal damage which could have affected the intercoolers. James Coleman is also stopped in that stage, reportedly with a mechanical problem in his Escort.
Gwyn Thomas in the Puma GT was caught out on wet tyres on a dry road in stage 3, and then by the time he got to the wet roads of stage 4 the tyres had lost their edge. Tom Curley in the Lancer had a few 5th gear moments in stage 4, total now 42.31. Andrew Fanning has settled down in his new car and had a good run through stages 3 and 4. Ollie McPhillips in the Celica is on a total of 42.42. Terence O’Shaughnessy was going well in his rear wheel drive Corolla and now up into the top 10. Eddy Garry is on 42.36. Early news on the Citroen C2R2s is that Barry Greer is setting the pace. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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