|
RALLY NEWS NO.7
Killarney parc ferme/Saturday 6pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 8 Doon Bridge
1ST (7) Kris Meeke/Jonas Andersson (Impreza WRC) 55.19.1
2nd (4) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 55.19.6
3rd (5) Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (Focus WRC) 55.48.1
4th (9) Kevin Lynch/David Moynihan (Focus WRC) 56.06.9
5th (3) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 56.12.5
6th (1) Gareth MacHale/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 56.17.6
7th (2) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 57.08.7
8th (14) Stephen Murphy/M J Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 57.17.6
9th (15) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 57.55.9
10th (8) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 58.06.5
Just a second or two separated the top drivers through stages 7 and 8
with young Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen the fastest through stage 7, although
only by the blink of an eye and then on stage 8 it was Kris Meeke who
was quickest. The top drivers all agreed that it was a massive race
over those stages with very little reward. Gareth MacHale admitted to
an overshoot at a square right junction in stage 8 which he felt maybe
cost him 12s, and he said. “I was too quick in and we just went
straight on. Overall this is the quickest I’ve ever driven
on tarmac, the car is faultless, we’re not going mad”.
Eugene Donnelly’s co driver Paul Kiely said “This is some
race” with Eugene adding “There’s nothing very technical
about these particular stages, some of it would be tricky in the wet,
but of course it is mostly bone dry”.
As Andreas Mikkelsen examined the broken roof vent on his Focus WRC Eugene
Donnelly threw an arm around the teenager’s shoulder and said “How
many times have you been to Ireland and what happened to your roof vent?”
Andreas replied quite simply “I’m trying”.
When Mark Higgins was asked how he was going he answered “Average,
I feel I’m not in the fight, its difficult to push after the punctures,
I can get on the pace but I can’t close the gap on those three at
the top”. Rally leader Kris Meeke said “I’m just
concentrating on not making mistakes at the moment”. Kevin
Lynch seemed to be fairly happy to be close to the top while Austin MacHale
reported 3rd and 5th gear troubles with his Focus. Gareth Jones’
co driver Greg Shinnors told us. “Stage 8 was our first real stage
all day Gareth was leaning on the car and then we got a puncture!”
Patrick Elliott has moved from 0th to 8th and he said “I’m
happy enough, I’m trying to relax in the car I was a bit too tense
earlier on”.
In Group N Colm Murphy reported “I’m enjoying it, James Cullen
is pushing me hard but I’m still on a comfortable pace, if he pushes
any harder it’ll be a different story”. James Cullen
is a strong 2nd, Kevin Kelleher 3rd, the Clonakilty man saying “It
has taken me a while to get acclimatised to Paddy’s accent, it’s
a long time since I’ve had anyone but my brother Martin co driving”.
We are still waiting for times for Alan Ring who was running a bit further
back and his group N position would now seem to be in jeopardy. Roy White
is still having cutting out problems with his Lancer and although Roy
has set some good times today he’s well over a minute off the group
N pace because the car cut out on stage 2.
News from Rally Argentina is that Loeb leads from Gronholm, Solberg 3rd
and Hirvonen 4th. Matthew Wilson’s Focus stopped on the first stage
because of electrical failure. In Production Cup Kristian Sohlberg led
after stage 1 from Toshi Arai with Villa 3rd, Pozzo 4th, Nasser Al-Attiyah
5th, Niall McShea 6th, Ligato 7th, Stuart Jones 8th. (our thanks
to Peter Martin for Argentina info).
National Rally – James M Stafford leading in his Darrian after SS6
from Fergus O’Meara, Philip Cross and Wesley Patterson, all in Escorts.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
*For SMS results and news to your mobiles text RALLY ITC to 60066 in UK
and 503030 in Ireland.Cost 25p/30c. Text RALLY STOP to stop at any time.
Provided by stagetimes.com
|
