| |
| Fastnet Stages |
| RALLY NEWS No.2 - Skibbereen - Tuesday @ 12:57:57 |
| |
|
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 1 Mount Kidd
1st (2) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 9.11
2nd (6) Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Lancer N) 9.16
3rd (5) Kevin & Martin Kelleher (Lancer N) 9.20
4th (8) Shaun Gallagher/MJ Morrissey (Citroen C2) 9.21
5th (11) James Washington/Eurig Davies (Darrian) 9.23
6th (15) James M Stafford/Frank O'Dwyer (Darrian) 9.26
7th (28) Tommy Doyle/Colin Fitzgerald (Clio) 9.31
8th (17) Fergus O'Meara/Liam Brennan (Escort) 9.38
(26) Daragh O’Riordan/Sean McCarthy (Corsa) 9.38
10th (30) Ger O’Donovan/Steve O’Donovan (Impreza N) 9.40
Thankfully the massively heavy rain which persisted all through Saturday died away in the early hours to leave the roads wet but not streaming. Melvyn Evans should have first through the fist stage in his Subaru WRC but Melvyn and co-driver Sean Mullally only got as far as Junction 7 before their Impreza ground to a halt with a broken drive shaft. It wasn’t a good start to the rally for the Welsh in general. Melvyn’s nephew Arwel Evans, with Frank Curtin on the notes in his Escort, crashed out at the first chicane and Gwyn Thomas in the Puma with Antony O’Conaill co-driving, didn’t even reach the first stage as the Welshman’s car broke down on the road section.
No such problems for West Cork crew Liam McCarthy & Kieran Murphy, they set a sizzling time through the opening Mount Kidd stage. Second fastest was Alan Ring with Kevin Kelleher 3rd. Kevin said that he was caught on the hop slightly at the stage start and he reckons there are quite a few more seconds possible improvement on his time. Bob Fowden was running 2nd on the road and his time was 9.48, the Welshman said that his Subaru seemed to be moving about quite a lot.
Visiting German driver Aaron Burkart reported no problems with his Citroen at stage finish. Provisionally we have a time for Aaron of 9.50, but this will need to be checked. Multi Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly was a couple of seconds down on Burkart’s time at stage finish but when Eugene brought the Excel Motorsport Citroen to a halt he was beaming from ear to ear and said. “That’s the best craic ever!” Eugene is in at the deep end a little, not having driven front wheel drive before. Well, he does remember vaguely doing a navigation rally in Cavan in a Golf GTI many years ago! He tried to do a test in the Citroen yesterday afternoon but the road was more like a river and it was all a waste of time. Shaun Gallagher started the first stage very late, we don’t why, but then he set a cracking time in the stage despite losing a few seconds at an early junction where John Somers had crashed his Celica.
Eoin Doyle’s time on that first stage was 10.09 and he said he felt rusty. Fergus O’Meara reported a broken manifold in his Escort at stage finish. Kevin O’Donoghue was a few seconds off the pace and was worried about a damaged rear left wheel. John Hickey was in a new group A Subaru and his time was 10.19, he said “Its like a space ship in here there are so many buttons and switches”.
Some times coming in from Andy at the end of stage 2 would show that Liam McCarthy was again fastest. Kevin Kelleher in “The Big Fella” Lancer was 1s up on Alan Ring in the race for 2nd and 3rd.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
|
