RALLY NEWS No.4 - Rathcormack Service - Sunday @ 00:01:43
RALLY NEWS NO.4 Rathcormack Service/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4 Cork Mart 2
1st (5) Garry Jennings/Liam Moynihan (Lancer N) 25.24.0
2nd (3) Darragh O'Riordan/Tony McDaid (Impreza WRC)) 25.26.0
3rd (1) Tim McNulty/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 25.56.4
4th (6) Sam Moffett/James O'Reilly (Lancer N) 26.40.9
5th (2) Kevin Barrett/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 27.22.4
6th (7) Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Lancer N) 27.35.7
7th (4) Robert Barrable/Damien Connolly (Fabia S2000) 27.39.7
8th (9) Brian O'Mahony/John Higgins (Impreza WRC) 27.42.8
9th (10) Willie Mavitty/John Rowan (Lancer N) 28.25.9
10th (68) Eugene Meegan/Brian Sharkey (Lancer N) 28.43.5
NATIONAL RALLY
1st (15) David Armstrong/Damien Fleming (Escort) 28.36.1
2nd (24) Charlie & Johnny Hickey (Escort) 29.48.6
3rd (25) AlanTreacy/Bob Fitzgerald (Corolla) 30.16.9
4th (30) Jason Ryan/Tadgh O’Sullivan (Civic) 30.47.0
5th (21) John Somers/John McGrath (Celica) 31.16.8
HISTORIC RALLY
1st Denis & Dan Moynihan (Escort): 2nd Alan Courtney/Paul Soutar (Porsche 928) 3rd Thomas & Colin O’Brien (Mini)
On the 2nd running of the spectator stage at Rathcormac Cork Mart hundreds of spectators cheered the cars through. Robert Barrable was fastest in his Skoda, trying to make up for some of the time he lost in SS2 when his Fabia’s light pod came adrift. Brian O’Mahony was 2nd fastest, just over 2s down on Barrable. Brian was 3rd o/a after SS3 but his Subaru stopped on the way to service and he incurred 2m15s road penalties. This dropped him to 8th o/a. It transpired that the oil filter in the gearbox hydraulic system had blown a seal. This jammed the car in 6th gear and he got stuck in Rathcormac village. The problem has now been sorted and the car is in fine fettle again.
Conditions in the stages were very difficult tonight. Thick fog and wet roads made it a nightmare for some of the competitors. At the same time some of the crews saw the conditions as a challenge and all part of rallying. Unfortunately stages 5 and 6 were not run on safety grounds because of the conditions.
Further stories from earlier include: Kieran Daly continues to lead the Citroen Racing Trophy category with Joe McGonigle 2nd despite being delayed in stage 2 behind someone else’s accident. Graeme Colfer is 3rd in the Citroens. Scott McElhinney is 4th and Peter Barrable 5th. Barrable joked that in one stage he thought he had turned into a pizza delivery man as he drove up someone’s drive in the fog by mistake! Joe Shrimpton has retired his Citroen C2R2 because the engine lost power. Raymond Conlon put his Corolla off on a square right corner. He eventually got going and then went into 2 more ditches, as the car’s lights were awry – but he is still in the rally. Kieran Marshall and his co driver Tommy Hayes crashed their Civic heavily in stage 3. Kieran could see very little in the fog but did glimpse a pole ahead. He thought the pole was on the right of the road but it was on the left! They are both a bit shaken but OK.
Finally for now, in a bizarre incident tonight, two of the RPM Television crew personnel had to go to hospital to receive treatment when they were attacked by a swarm of angry East Cork wasps on a stage….it never rains but it pours…..
More news in the morning. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
