RallyNews No 2                               Service Area Monaghan Town  Sunday 1.00pm

 

Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Three

 

1^st (9) Dessie Keenan/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 22.53

2^nd (5) Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly (Corolla WRC) 23.00

3^rd (1) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza S11) 23.02

4^th (10) Michael Barrable/Dermot O’Gorman (Focus WRC) 23.18

5^th (2) Ray Breen/Damien Morrissey (Focus WRC) 23.26

=   (3) Aaron MacHale/Derek Brannigan (Focus WRC) 23.26

7^th (8) Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza WRC) 23.30

8^th (7) Kevin Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 23.37

9^th (14) Michael Curran/Killian Duffy (Lancer N) 24.03

10^th (20) Gary McPhillips/Mark Tierney (Escort Mk2) 24.12

11^th (18) Willie Fannin/Mark Kane (Impreza N) 24.16

12^th (15) Seamus Leonard/John McCafferty (Impreza N) 24.22

 

Dessie Keenan  has certainly proved that he can adapt to a World Rally Car as he now leads this Monaghan Rally after the first three stages.  Dessie drove cautiously on the opening stage but co driver Enda Sherry admitted they pushed a bit harder on stage two were they went fastest by 3 seconds from Patrick Elliott.  Sherry then went on to explain that they were one off several crews who lost time in stage three as they stopped for Adrian McElvaney’s accident.  McElvaney who won the previous two Monaghan rallies went off somewhere in the middle of the stage on some new tar that was described as very shiny, but despite both crew members being out of the car and both unharmed, there was no OK board shown and spectators were flagging down the following crews.  Kevin Barrett, Niall Maguire and Michael Barrable all dropped a little time at the scene of the accident.

 

Patrick Elliott described his run as good but was in a bit of a quandary as to which tyre to choose, Patrick explaining that the roads were drying slightly but were equally very slippy in places.  Ray Breen spun his Focus WRC in SS3 but admitted that he is more concerned about getting a finish here in Monaghan and securing some points towards his Dunlop Championship campaign. Aaron MacHale is having a bit of a torrid time in his Focus with the launch control not working and as a result he stalled on both stage two and three, now a slipping clutch is hampering his progress in the stages.  Noel Redmond was another to have two stalls, one at the start of stage three and one in the stage.  Early rally leader Glenn Allen caught Noel Redmond on the third stage loosing a couple of seconds but otherwise having a good run.  Sean Devine struggled through stage two with this continuing mechanical problems but discovered that a turbo pipe had come adrift and was able to fix it between stages two and three, with the car now now fettled Sean set a time of 8.12 on SS3 which was equal fifth fastest.

 

Michael Curran is once again leading the GpN category and reports no troubles while Seamus Leonard has swapped his usual Lancer for a N10 Impreza and lies third in GpN.  Ian Barrett was off the road in SS3 loosing at least a minute and a half.  Kevin and Martin Kelleher took the brave decision to run on slicks over this morning’s damp stages and lies just off the leaderboard with a total of 24.34.  Maurice Moffett lost some time on the opening stage when his intercom failed and is equal on time with Kevin Kelleher and third 2wd provisionally.  Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd