RallyNews No.3 Service In / Sunday 2.15pm

Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Three

1st (1) Aaron MacHale/Killian Duffy (Focus WRC) 26.37
2nd (2) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 26.38
3rd (3) Michael Barrable/Dermot O’Gorman (Focus WRC) 27.01
4th (4) Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly (Corolla WRC) 27.11
5th (9) Sean Devine/Martin Brady (Impreza WRC) 27.15
6th (6) Niall Maguire/Paul McLoughlin (Impreza WRC) 27.23
7th (12) Sean Gallagher/Claire Gallagher (Impreza S8) 27.56
8th (15) Seamus Leonard/John McCafferty (Lancer N) 27.59
9th (10) Kevin Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 28.03
10th (14) Michael Curran/Fabian McShane (Lancer N) 28.11
11th (20) Rodney Wilton/Conor McMahon (Escort Mk2) 28.35
12th (17) Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Impreza N) 28.41

Aaron MacHale and local star driver Patrick Elliott are certainly making things exciting at the front of this Cavan Stages Rally. Effectively the pair tied on SS1 as it seems that tenths of a seconds have been dropped from the timing, MacHale then went fastest on SS2 by 2 seconds from Patrick who then went fastest by just one second in SS3 leaving the leading pair separated by just one second. Aaron reported no dramas and said he was enjoying it while Patrick Elliott said much the same before co driver Paul Goodman quipped “it is all right for you I am not really enjoying it” and then had a good laugh. The big retirement news on SS2 is that Ray Breen retired his Focus when the fly by wire throttle failed effectively ending his championship campaign. A bit more controversial is the loss of Noel Redmond is SS3. Redmond allegedly blocking the stage and not displaying okay/sos board. Kevin Barrett was stuck for at least thirty seconds dropping him from sixth down to ninth. Co driver Barry Goodman will be requesting that the organisers have a look at their time for the stage. Redmond eventually extracted his Impreza but did not get a time as he arrived here at service.

Michael Barrable continues to loose time to the leaders with his launch control problems and the Dubliner actually stalled for a few seconds at the start of SS3. Glenn Allen’s Corolla has developed a misfire but the Cookstown driver is confident that Engineer Derek McGeehen can sort the job. McGeehen has just arrived here from the Jim Clarke after engineering Eugene Donnelly’s Impreza. Niall Maguire feels that his Impreza is loosing ground to the newer WRC models in particular out of junctions. Sean Devine is having a good run in fifth but he put his Impreza up a bank loosing a few seconds.

In GpN Seamus Leonard is still flying but had a massive overshoot on SS2 allowing Michael Curran to go fastest GpN car, Seamus leading the category by just 12 seconds now. Wesley Patterson was off the road in SS2 but more importantly his Escort has dropped onto three cylinders through SS3. Rodney Wilton continues to lead the 2wd but told us how he dramatically took out two hedges at the start of SS2. Danny McBride was off in SS2 and has still no turbo boost while Manus Kelly has dropped out of the reckoning following a puncture in SS2. More News Later Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd

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