Although running a little late the rally looked much more settled as the top drivers faced the 3rd run over Corbally Beg, stage 7. When Garry Jennings arrived at the end of stage 7 he commented. `We were nice and steady that time`. Arbelos man Roy White is 2nd on the road, although 6th on the leaderboard, and he reported spinning his Fiesta WRC at the exit of a square left corner. The rear of the Fiesta clouted the scenery and a wheel filled up with mud leading Roy to think he may have had a puncture. He kept going and although he lost a fair bit of time he still held on to his 6th position.
Keith Cronin turned in a marvellous time for the stage, almost 8s quicker than Alastair Fisher. That meant Keith moving into 2nd place o/a and best of the R5 runners. Alastair reported no real reason why he dropped the time to Keith. Desi Henry was a couple of seconds faster than Fisher and he commented at just how delighted he is with his new Skoda. Sam Moffett seemed to lose a bit of momentum in the stage and he said. `We went good enough but all this damage and crashes makes me be a bit cautious`. Jonny Greer has edged ahead of Stephen Wright to move into 7th place with Stephen dropping to 9th behind Josh Moffett. Stephen said he went OK with no real problem.
Paul Rowley is holding 11th o/a in his Skoda with David Guest in the GpN Lancer 12th and Brendan Cumiskey 13th in his new Fiesta R5. Brendan commented that he can feel a big difference between the Fiesta and the Impreza N he was driving last year, particularly in the braking department.
In the National Rally Wesley Patterson really got the foot down through that stage 7 and was 8s quicker than Eugene Meegan with Tom Flaherty 7s down on BMW man Eugene. Gus Kearney is now a solid 15th and 2nd group N, going like a train.
Young Callum Devine continues to lead class 2 in his Opel Adam from William Creighton in his Peugeot 208 R2. Richard Whelan is ahead in cl3 in his Citroen Ds3R3 from Jonathan Folan in a similar car. David Armstrong leads class 14 on the National Rally in his Escort. Seamus Connolly is best in class 11R with his Toyota Corolla, also in the National.
We would like to again thank Bill Adair for the use of his tyre truck and hope we have not been too much of a nuisance to the men doing the real work with the tyres – Adrian, Marty and Andy C.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL & ZOE PATTERSON www.rallynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter & Facebook @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
