RALLY NEWS NO.7 Finish/Castlebar/Sunday 6.15

UNOFFICIAL LEADEERBOARD AFTER STAGE 8 – FINAL STAGE
1st (1) Aaron MacHale/Killian Duffy (Focus WRC) 1.08.54
2nd (7) Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza WRC) 1.09.01
3rd (2) Tim McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 1.09.22
4th (3) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 1.10.34
5th (16) Stephen Moore/Tony McHugh (Focus WRC) 1.11.48
6th (6) Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly (Corolla WRC) 1.11.59
7th (5) Noel Redmond/Derek Brannigan (Impreza WRC) 1.12.52
8th (17) Rodney Wilton/Conor McMahon (Escort) 1.13.26
9th (18) Camillus Bradley/Danny O'Neill (Escort) 1.13.59
10th (25) Joe & Dermot McHugh (Esc.Cos) 1.14.02

This Mayo Stages Rally certainly went down to the wire with a great battle for the lead right to the end and it was defending National Champion Aaron MacHale who came out on top finishing 7s ahead of former triple Champion Niall Maguire. Co-driving in Aaron’s Focus WRC was local man Killian Duffy, so this was very much a red letter day for Killian. Aaron commented at the finish. “We gave it a lash, we were on intermediate tyres and although there was a little rain, it was nothing much, so the car was rolling a bit. But we put in the hard work on the second last stage to beat Niall by 6s. Really enjoyed the day, a great rally”. Niall Maguire, who has been putting in some fitness training recently and is really intent to give this year’s Championship a good go, had one of his best runs today for a long time. The Monaghan man said at the finish. “I tried my best, it was some day”. Tim McNulty in 3rd said. “I enjoyed those last runs, I’m happier with the car now, we’re a lot further on than we were this morning with the set up”.

Patrick Elliott took 4th place and didn’t seem to settle all day but still gets a good bag of Dunlop National points for today. Stephen Moore in 4th was really getting on to the tarmac pace, which is what he wanted, and when his Focus came into the finish he said. “That was better than I expected”. Glenn Allen in 6th reported that he really enjoyed the afternoon stages.

Further stories here at the finish is that Rodney Wilton and his co driver Conor McMahon have finished best 2 wheel drive crew in their Escort from Camillus Bradley/Danny O’Neill in a similar Ford. Following his earlier puncture Mark Alcorn screwed everything out of his Corolla to take fastest 2 wheel drive times on the last 2 stages.

Danny McBride has unofficially taken the group N category, Danny co-driven today by Ambrose Given, struggled a bit towards the end and said that his Lancer was shuddering in 2nd and 3rd gear, something wrong with the diff but seemed OK in 4th and 5trh!

Finally for now many thanks to all who helped and supported the Rally News service today and well done to everyone in the Mayo club for putting on such a good rally once again. Special thanks to CoC Jonathan Rice for all his help. Thanks as well to Paul Coey and Dougie Hughes for their assistance today.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net