UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 5 BALLAGHBEAMA
INTERNATIONAL
1st (1) Daragh O'Riordan/Tony McDaid (Impreza WRC) 41.41.1
2nd (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paddy Toner (Corolla WRC) 42.28.5
3rd (4) Darren Gass/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 42.30.5
4th (6) Garry Jennings/Barry McNulty (Lancer N) 44.20.3
5th (9) Sam Moffett/James O'Reilly (Lancer N) 45.29.6
6th (12) JJ Fleming/Robbie Ward (Focus WRC) 45.56.7
NATIONAL
1st (23) Barry Meade/Liam Moynihan (Escort) 44.35.5
2nd (10) Roy White/Liam Brennan (MG S2000) 44.43.4
3rd (18) Fergus O'Meara/Diarmuid Lynch (Escort) 45.12.7
4th (24) Ed Murphy/John McCarthy (Escort) 45.17.0
5th (33) Denis Moynihan/Eamonn Hayes (Escort) 46.09.1
6th (20) Charlie Hickey/Johnny Hickey (Escort) 46.11.1
Midleton’s Daragh O’Riordan, with Tony McDaid on the notes, has fairly scorched through the last couple of stages and has set a new record time of 8m55.3s for the Ballaghbeama stage. Daragh’s co-driver Tony reckons they could go even faster but feels that they would really need a harder compound Pirelli tyre to combat today’s bone-dry roads. Eugene Donnelly is now shown in 2nd place but he reckons his time wasn’t correct for the 2nd run over Molls Gap and that he is in fact behind Darren Gass on the leaderboard. Eugene commented. “Certainly we had a great run over Molls and I knew I had taken time out of Daragh, but not 30s. I didn’t push quite so hard on Ballaghbeama and it was hard to judge the pace”. Darren Gass has only been here on the Lakes once before so doesn’t know the stages overly well and he is reasonably content with his pace. His main aim this weekend is to score Tarmac Championship points.
Further changes to the leaderboard over the last 2 stages include – Eoin Doyle’s Focus ground to a halt on the Ballaghbeama stage and Aaron |McHale’s Focus is also out due to clutch problems. Doyle did discover a loose wire to the alternator and tried to fix it before the start of Ballaghbeama but obviously was unsuccessful. His car stopped on a narrow piece of road and some of the following cars had trouble squeezing past including JJ Fleming who said afterwards that it completely knocked his concentration. Kevin O’Connor is now up to 7th o/a and leads the Citroen Racing Trophy from David Carney with Kieran Daly 3rd. Vincent O’Shea now lies 3rd in GpN and Jer O’Donovan in his Subaru is 4th. Jer admits that the times just are not coming today and he’s trying to figure out why.
Fergus O’Meara in his Dairymaster Escort was fastest through the Ballaghbeama stage to move up into 3rd o/a. The lead of the National category also changed when both Roy White and Barry Meade both had problems. White’s MG S2000 developed power steering problems and he dropped approximately 30s. A rear wheel also came loose on its splines that did not help Roy’s cause. His co-driver Liam Brennan said. “We did receive a “get out of jail early card” as Barry Meade had a misfire in his Escort’s engine and he also dropped some time.”
In the Historic Rally after 2 stages Wesley Patterson in his Escort RS1800 led by 33s from Todd Falvey (Porsche) with Phillip Wylie 3rd in his Escort. James O’Mahony in his Volvo was 4th. Alan Courtney (Porsche 928) was 5th. Jeremiah Flynn 6th in his Escort.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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