Sam Moffett was fastest overall through stage 11, Lough Cutra, his time 5m15s for the 10km stage. Garry Jennings was just .3 of a second behind the flying Moffett, and Alastair Fisher was .4 of a second back on Jennings with Keith Cronin a further .4 of a second in arrears. It is all very close stuff. In fairness Jennings is trying to take it easy and just conserve his substantial lead. He said `We are going round corners in 4th gear and we should be in 6th`. Sam Moffett was bubbling with confidence and enthusiasm when we talked to him in service and he said. `Everything is perfect`. Interestingly Sam picked a full wet tyre for this morning`s opening loop and some drivers such as Joe McGonigle, who is really flying, picked a dry weather tyre. It does not make sense – it must be as much in the driver`s head and his confidence level as anything.
We reported on the last RallyNews that Keith Cronin`s Citroen had attacked the scenery at one point and when he finished the stage there was a noise coming from the engine bay. It certainly seemed to be OK through the following stage, so there could not be too much wrong. Josh Moffett reported all OK on stage 11 but was knocked back by that spin in stage 10. Stephen Wright, now slipped to 10th, said he has just no feel in his driving this weekend and it is just a matter of keeping going. Jonny Greer felt he was not getting heat into his Citroen`s tyres, and he was more or less on the pace of Wright on stage 11. Roy White continues to hold 6th place and has now changed the front suspension struts on his Fiesta WRC. His engineer Tom Gahan changed the brakes earlier today and Roy said that slowly but surely his performance is improving. Arbelos man Roy continued. `We will keep experimenting all day and try and get a good set up for the start of the National Championship in Mayo.`
Just outside the top 10 David Guest holds 11th place and leads Group N in his Lancer. Brendan Cumiskey is 12th, the Dundalk Volkswagen dealer reported that he is not getting the same brake fade since he changed the pads, but as McHale creeps ever closer, just 5s in arrears now, Brendan said. `I must be using the brakes too much, that is maybe the problem!` Gus Kearney in the Sepam Lancer said he was far too slow out of the blocks this morning but went better in SS11 and was 5s faster than Willie Mavitty who is 2nd in GpN with young Gus 3rd.
In the National Rally Eugene Meegan, his BMW going like a train, was 3s faster than Wesley Patterson through stage 11 to regain the National lead. Wesley said he backed off on a very slippy section towards the end of stage 11. Tom Flaherty remains 3rd, Ray Cunningham continues to lead the Historics in his Mini Cooper despite 2 spins on the Black Road, he said. `I really like that stage and I always push hard on it`. First times in for the Juniors show Kieran O`Donoghue leading in his Civic.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL & ZOE PATTERSON
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