There was further drama on stage 11 of this Topaz Donegal International Rally. Stage 11 Grovehall was a re-run of stage 9 and it would appear that a car on the first run through dropped oil on the road. Rally official Patrick Haughey in a course car radioed back to the start control of the stage to ask them to inform the competitors of the situation. Rally leader Garry Jennings was however caught out on the oil and his Subaru slithered wide and banged into a bank but kept going. Unfortunately Garry has hurt his arm and his wrist in the impact. He still leads the rally although he dropped 9s in the stage to Darragh O’Riordan. Darragh has his own drama further down the stage when his Subaru overshot a junction. Seamus Leonard had a good run and he was 3rd fastest. O’Riordan was quickest with Jennings 2nd fastest. Darren Gass has been trying to claw his way back up the leaderboard following yesterday’s road penalties, but he dropped a few seconds on that stage 11 having picked the wrong tyres for the damp conditions. Derek McGarrity had a “so so” time and remains 4th. Niall Maguire improved by a few seconds having made a few changes to his Subaru suspension and picked a more suitable tyre.
In Group N Sam Moffett was a couple of seconds faster than his brother Josh through stage 11 and leads GpN by 7s. On our last RallyNews we thought Josh was in front but we must have got a wrong time as Sam has led GpN from the start. Just outside the leaderboard Martin Doherty is 11th and 3rd in GpN with Conor Harvey breathing down his neck. In the National Rally Declan Boyle was fastest through stage 11 by 12s from Manus Kelly. Manus was quickest on the first 2 stages today and now Boyle has responded. Daniel McKenna who is running in Super Rally set a time 8s slower than Boyle. David Bogie who is also in Super Rally has a problem with his Metro 6R4 at the start of the stage but managed to get going eventually. Talking of Super Rally – Donegal man David Ward retired his Sunbeam on Day 1 with a blown engine. He put an ad in Done Deal and bought a Suzuki Swift for €250 from a woman in Letterkenny last night. He fitted the engine into the Sunbeam and bolted on twin Webers and is rallying today!
In the Historic Rally Andy Johnson in his Chevette HSR was the early leader after their first 2 stages this morning. John Keatley was 2nd and Donal Connolly 3rd, both in Escorts.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ & MICHAEL PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
Follow RallyNews on Twitter & Facebook @pacenotes or Real_RallyNews
