Out at the front of the rally Eamonn Boland continues to clock up fastest times. Eamonn touched a bank on stage 4 but his Subaru was undamaged although he did pull back a little for a few kms in case he had punctured a rear tyre. Gareth MacHale said. “We have a little bit left under braking but not a lot”. Aaron MacHale in 3rd said. “No problems, having a good run now, all I can do is keep plugging away”.
Niall McShea continues to lead group N and hold a very solid 4th o/a although Damien Tourish was 1s faster through stage 4. Damien however reckons his Lancer is slightly down on power, the turbo boost seems to have dropped a little, and from outside the Lancer you can hear a little piffing noise from some of the manifolds. Kevin Kelleher had a real good run and is really enjoying the very fast stages. John McGlaughlin is dropping back ever so slightly in the race with Kevin Kelleher for Tarmac c/ship group N honours and John said. “We did have a slight overshoot but really I need a bigger bicycle pump to blow me up a bit!” Alan Ring reckons he needs slightly harder compound tyres, otherwise going very well.
Alan Carmichael is in 13th o/a, 7th in group N and is looking very solid at the moment in terms of the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge. We mentioned on the last Rally News that Brendan Cumiskey, Carmichael’s closest rival, lost time in stage 1. Brendan’s Lancer seems to be back on full song and yes, he is about 3 minutes back, but going well again. Sean Flanagan/Brian Duggan are starting to move up the order following their earlier clutch pedal troubles, the group N Impreza duo now 11th o/a and their team mate Mark Nangle is 14th. Stanley Ballantine is 15th, his Lancer sporting a flat rear tyre when it arrived into service but this cost no time in stage 4. Guy Woodcock is leading class 7 from Tommy Doyle, Doyle’s Clio showing a little bit of damage to the rear end, but it was more a matter of the apron coming loose than contact with the scenery.
Toni Kelly has slipped down the order slightly, her Civic having slid backwards into some bushes. Happily there was no damage. The reason for Eugene Donnelly’s retirement was a broken wire connection to the alternator. He is trying to make arrangements to OO, and said the car feels brilliant but he needs more competitive mileage in it. Austin MacHale completed that second loop of stages in the new Opel S2000. The new car looks brilliant. When they finished their first stage Austin looked at co driver Dermot O’Gorman and they both burst out laughing. It was such good fun and of course reminiscent of Austin’s days driving the works Opel Ireland cars. Austin said about the car. “We have a few things to fine tune but overall it is going really well. I want to raise the suspension and also soften it a little. This is the first real time on stages and it feels a bit nervous but still brilliant. We got some parts in last night and modified the cross member and rack this morning and everything is going really well”.
News from Rally Yorkshire is that Wilks was fastest on stage 5 from Keith Cronin. In overall terms Wilks leads from Mark Higgins with Cronin 3rd, Gwyndaf Evans 4th and Darren Gass 5th. On the Omagh Bushwhacker Rally Connor McCloskey led after 3 stages from Sean Devine with Glenn Allen 3rd, James Gillen 4th and Neil McCance 5th and leading GpN. More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
