There is still a long way to go on this Topaz Donegal Rally. Rally leader Garry Jennings has shrugged off the affects of his accident and has put a little more fresh air between himself and 2nd placed Darragh O’Riordan over the Fanad Head stage. Jennings powered his state of the art Subaru S14 over the twisty 20km of Fanad roads in a stunning 10m 56s. Darragh O’Riordan was 3s slower. All those 3s add up and Jennings now has a 33s advantage. Garry said at stage finish. “All OK. Arm is not so bad now.” Kenny McKinstry was at the finish control – he is looking after Seamus Leonard – and Kenny said. “The same happened to me on the Circuit 3 years ago and it took a couple of years for the pain to go away!” O’Riordan commented about the pouring wet conditions. “We’re getting no grip. It is quite dangerous”. Seamus Leonard saw the opportunity to push hard and compensate for the power of the two cars in front and he set a time 2s down on Jennings and `1s up on Darragh O’Riordan. Aaron MacHale put his Focus in the ditch on Fanad and is reportedly going no further.
Sam Moffett spun his Lancer at the square right junction beside the small shop on Fanad and dropped 15s and lost the GpN lead to his younger brother Josh. Conor Harvey is now 3rd GpN and Martin Doherty 4th. In the Citroen Racing Trophy Kevin O’Connor leads Kieran Daly by 28s. Kieran was too cautious over the Grovehall stage this morning. He felt that it was so like the stage in Munster where he had a big accident that it unsettled him. Declan Boyle was fastest of the National Rally drivers over Fanad and extended his lead over Manus Kelly. Manus was a bit surprised at Boyle’s time. Geoffrey Dolan is lying at the back of the top 10 of the National. He is going better today having changed back to the fuel that his Escort was originally mapped for.
Adrian Hetherington lost quite a few minutes and several places on the leaderboard this morning when his Escort’s starter motor broke. He had stalled the car in the stage and couldn’t get it re-started. Vivian Hamill dropped 7m with a spin and a puncture. John O’Donnell was challenging for a top 10 place and 3rd GpN this morning until his Lancer lost 1st and 2nd gear. The mechanics were changing the gearbox at lunchtime service and we have no time as yet for John from Fanad. Looking back to times after SS12 – young Declan Leonard (Seamus’ son) led Cl.1 in his Fiesta. Tony Jardine & Maurice Hamilton were still going strong and were in 27th place in the Raymond Mason Lancer. PJ McDermott had slipped back to 16th in the Garry Jennings’ Lancer.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ 7 MICHAEL PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
Follow RallyNews on Twitter & Facebook @pacenotes or Real_RallyNews
