Darren Gass extended his lead through stages 7 and 8. His closest pursuer Eugene Donnelly said. “We’re only going Ok ish. The car is going fine. I’m enjoying driving it, it’s a real good feeling but I’m disappointed that the times aren’t there. I’ve been hesitant in the stages. I feel I have a lack of knowledge of the roads. I did make a mistake with the tyres but I changed the back ones around before stage 7 and that helped. I can’t understand why I dropped so much time again in stage 8”.
Rally leader Darren Gass said earlier that his car was down on power. It seems to come alright and he reckons the problem was down to sitting waiting at the start of stage 6 when there was a temperature drop off. He put his diff problem down to a partially blocked filter in the gearbox affecting the hydraulic system. He was able to drive around the problem and reckons it can be sorted at service. Derek McGarrity has had more brake problems with his Mini WRC. To compound 5 times Circuit winner Derek’s woes, the driver’s side window fell out and he couldn’t really hear the notes properly from co driver James McKee because of the wind and noise. McKee commented. “We’ve had some good luck on the Circuit but not this time”.
Kenny McKinstry was unfortunate to get a puncture on the rear of his Subaru when he cut a right hand junction too tight at the start of stage 8 but he lost little time. Interestingly Steve Perez was 2nd fastest through stage 8. The Kick Energy man settling down well after a shaky start to the rally. Drew Steward has lost time over the last couple of stages and dropped out of 6th place as his Escort clutch has been slipping like mad. Drew is going to try and change the clutch here at service but it is a big job. Geoffrey Dolan is just outside the top 6 and is now ignoring the paddle shift on his Escort and is just using the convention change.
Adrian Hetherington finished stage 8 with his Escort’s rear tyres in shreds but otherwise going well. Fintan McGrady has been in and out of two different fields this morning and dropped 20 – 25s. Fintan said. “We’re just feeling as fresh and as sharp as we were yesterday”. Trevor Ferguson continues to lead GpN in his Impreza despite losing a few seconds in stage 8 when he struggled on the gravelly roads.
The top drivers were running at 2 minute intervals through stages 7 and 8 to try and re-schedule the rally a little as there had been a delay for the later numbers when a spectator fell and broke his arm. As Kevin O’Kane would say….”If it’s not the wheel it’s the barrow”…..
Ray Brammer is moving up the order slowly but surely despite broken steering rack bolts on his Impreza WRC, and then the fire extinguisher broke loose and set itself off in stage 8.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net Follow RallyNews on Twitter @Pacenotes
