RALLY NEWS NO.4 Service/Saturday 4.15

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 Rathbarry
1st (3) Donie O'Sullivan/Paul Nagle (Impreza WRC) 47.24.8
2nd (7) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Lancer N) 47.38.4
3rd (4) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 48.26.0
4th (5) John Dalton/Gwynfor Jones (Darrian) 48.34.1
5th (15) Wesley Patterson/Ruth Guest (Escort) 49.18.0
6th (12) Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Lancer N) 49.35.3
7th (24) Neil Williams/Eurig Davies (Escort) 49.42.4
8th (19) Gwyndaf Evans/Martin Henry (Escort) 49.57.9
9th (22) Conor Curley/Nigel Frazer (Escort) 50.02.5
10th (17) James Stafford/Frank Dwyer (Darrian) 50.04.1
11th (6) Phil Collins/Derek Brannigan (Escort) 50.06.4
12th (21) Adrian Hetherington/Gary Nolan (Escort) 50.07.3

With the warm side of the stone turning up at last for this St Patrick’s weekend, the sun’s out and the temperatures are soaring and it is dry weather racers for the top drivers for these last 2 Saturday stages. There are just over 20s seconds separating Donie O’Sullivan in 1st and Colm Murphy in 2nd. Donie had a huge moment at Rathbarry village in stage 6 when he spun the McKinstry Subaru and then stalled it. Co driver Paul Nagle joked. “He’s banned from using the hand brake!” Donie himself said. “I’m making it tough work, spinning and stalling. And of course there were about 90 cameras at that junction in Rathbarry. The car is a bit soft, a bit wobbly, but it is good”.

Colm Murphy in 2nd place reckoned he was on the wrong tyres for that loop of stages but in overall terms Colm is having a good clean run in the James Foley Lancer. Liam McCarthy’s Corolla suffered a front puncture in stage 5. They just kept going for most of the stage on the flat and dropped about 30-40s. Co driver Kieran Murphy is getting a sore throat yelling the notes but overall everything is well. Unofficially McCarthy had a fastest time through stage 6.

John Dalton in 4th has speeded up now that the roads are drying and he is able to get the power of the Darrian down on to the asphalt. Wesley Patterson backed off slightly through stage 6 when he discovered that the differential gasket was weeping a bit of oil.

Further stories from the last loop of stages was that Liam McFall retired his Evo with a blown turbo. Owen Murphy crashed his example out at junction 17 on stage 5. Owen was running late anyway having changed the front differential in the car. Tom Curley would now appear to be lying 2nd in the Evo Challenge despite trouble with the transfer box in the Lancer. Alan Ring lost time at Rathbarry when he hit the kill switch in the Lancer by mistake and it took him quite a few seconds to find out why the car was stopping. Gary & Harvey Bell in the MF GlobalSpreads backed Impreza are starting to settle down a bit, but Gary is finding to his annoyance that even when he feels he has driven well that the cars around him are still taking chunks of time. Alan Carmichael is losing time as his co driver Ivor Lamont seems to be quite sick.

Phil Collins is battling back from his earlier time loss. He has bypassed the damaged oil cooler on his Escort following his stage 4 accident. Some oil got on to the brakes and that has caused him a few very sideways moments. He reckons that although he was outside the top 10 after stage 4 he could still catch drivers such as Conor Curley and James Stafford. Phil said in all seriousness. “You gotta get up every morning and have a goal. That’s mine for tomorrow!” Conor Curley reckons he fell asleep over the last couple of stages and although he is on the leaderboard it could have been slightly better. Brian O’Mahony started to go well after a slow start but then his Clio suffered a puncture in stage 5 and he only had 2 wet weather tyres to change on to for stage 6. Brian said “I’m here and I’m enjoying myself”.

In the Citroen C2R2 Cup after stage 4 Marty McCormack still led but by just 20s from Barry Evans with Paul Manton 3rd. Barry and Paul have really upped their game and were close to Marty’s times. The C2R2s are running in class 6 and Brian O’Mahony leads the class with Darragh O’Riordan 2nd in his Corsa and Marty McCormack is 3rd just ahead of Monaghan’s Barry Evans also in a C2R2., with Paul Manton next up. Sam Moffett and Graham Kelly are battling for 4th and 5th in the C2R2s.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net

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