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RALLY NEWS
NO.8 Clonakilty
Service/Sunday 11.30
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 10 Ballinascarthy
1st (2) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 1.08.16.7
2nd (7) Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Focus WRC) 1.08.48.2
3rd (5) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Impreza WRC) 1.10.16.5
4th (6) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (Impreza WRC) 1.10.42.9
5th (16) Tony Davies/Brian Hardie (Impreza WRC) 1.11.13.1
6th (10) John Dalton/Gwynfor Jones (Darrian) 1.13.49.3
7th (12) Kevin & Martin Kelleher (Lancer N) 1.14.26.4
8th (8) Jon Ingram/Ian Allsop (Impreza WRC) 1.14.34.5
9th (48) John Foley/Jonathan Waterman (Impreza N) 1.14.46.5
10th (25) Kevin O'Donoghue/Joe O'Leary (Escort) 1.14.59.7
11th (51) Washington James/Aled Jones 9Darrian) 1.15.34.4
12th (36) James Stafford/Frank Dwyer (Darrian) 1.15.43.8
13th (22) Wesley Patterson/Ruth Guest (Escort) 1.15.49.8
A sudden onset of cold driving rain gave the drivers a hard time
through stage 10, Ballinascarthy. All the leading cars were
fitted with dry weather tyres and of course within seconds the roads
were streaming wet such was the intensity of the downpour.
Rally leader Tim McNulty was glad to get through the stage safely
and managed a fastest time. Michael Barrable had brake woes
to add to his weather worries and Michael was surprised to only
drop a handful of seconds to the flying Subaru in front Liam
McCarthy in 3rd was a full 17s down on McNulty which pushes the
gap from 1st to 3rd up to 2 minutes. Denis Cronin in 4th place
was a couple of seconds faster than McCarthy, but Denis was another
just glad to get through the stage in one piece. Tony Davies
in 5th reports a small blow out with his Subaru manifold but no
big problem. Jon Ingram was disappointed and indeed annoyed
that his Subaru punctured a tyre in the stage and he dropped 2 minutes
to slide from 6th to 8th on the leaderboard. Jon commented.
“I just don’t understand it. I’m getting more
punctures on the tarmac than I am in the forests.”
John Dalton continues to lead the modified category. John has decided
to slacken his pace ever so slightly and concentrate on getting
the car to the finish. In any case his powerful Darrian would be
quite a handful in slippy conditions. Willie Power was 11th o/a
after stage 9 but we didn’t see him at the end of stage 10.
Kevin O’Donoghue is still 2nd in the modifieds and leading
Mk2 Escort contender but Kevin has a worrying oil leak in his Escort
transmission. Conor Curley was lying 19th overnight and stopped
to make sure that Martin McGee was OK following his stage 9 accident.
Conor forgot that his intercom lead was still connected and with
jumping out of the car in the emergency he yanked it out by the
roots. When he eventually got going on the next stage Conor had
to rely on hand signals from co driver Nigel Frazer. We mentioned
McGee’s accident on our previous RallyNews – his Escort
got away from him, stepped out over a crest and tumbled. Happily
both Martin and co driver Damien Crawford were uninjured.
In Group N Kevin & Martin Kelleher make a lacklustre start through
stage 9 but speeded up through 10 and were a lot happier with their
performance, although John Foley was 1.7s faster through stage 10
despite not being happy with his tyres. James O’Sullivan is
3rd group N and seems happier this morning and going better than
yesterday. Possibly 023 Tiles man James is shaking off the effects
of his flu.
It is interesting to see Billy Coleman Award winner Owen Murphy
back out “OOing” this morning. Owen’s Lancer blew
its turbo leaving parc ferme yesterday morning and his father drove
all the way to McKinstry’s in Banbridge yesterday to get a
replacement turbo to get young Owen out on the stages today. Unbelievable,
after just 2 stages this morning the clutch, which was fitted new
for the rally, has just blown and Owen has been sidelined again.
Tough game this rallying…..More news later. BRIAN & LIZ
PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
