The above times are from the first few cars only. A few more times include: Denis Cronin 11.20: Sam Moffett 10.47: Frank Kelly 10.52: Willie Mavitty 11.00: Eoin Doyle 11.22.
The opening 17.8km Cobblers Cross stage was slippy following early morning fog and dew and low sun in the first section of the stage was a real problem for the drivers. Happily, the top crews finished the stage with no incidents and as can be seen above East Cork man Daragh O’Riordan was fastest. Daragh commented. “It was very slippy. More than I thought it would be”. Darren Gass said. “I forgot to switch on the brake cooling system and the pedal went soft towards the end of the stage”. Interestingly Darren is the new Tarmac Champion as the only driver who could have deprived him of the title was Garry Jennings and he is a non-starter. This also means that Sam Moffett is the new Tarmac Group N Champion.
Further stories from the end of that opening stage include – Denis Cronin said. “I was very slow. It is a year since we have had a run.” Declan Boyle felt he was being too cautious. Sam Moffett was quite surprised as to how slippy the stage was. Roy White’s MGS 2000 lost its power steering 3km from the end of the stage. Frank Kelly picked a slick tyre for the rear of his Escort and said. “It went from one handling to another. But it’s a long weekend”. Owen Murphy had a good run to be fastest Group N driver. Eoin Doyle, who is a late entry in the Ray Breen Focus WRC, said. “My confidence was very low”. Willie Mavitty remarked on his Lancer being down on power, possibly to do with the turbo.
On the subject of Ray Breen, his son Craig slipped to 2nd overnight in the SWRC on Rally de France, 2s down on New Zealand driver Paddon. Alastair Fisher had another retirement from the FIA Academy. This time his Fiesta engine cried enough. In the overall standings overnight Loeb led Latvala by 13s with Hirvonen 3rd. Petter Solberg was just 0.7s behind Hirvonen but a text from Chris P this morning told us that they are off the road and out of the rally, both OK.
Some more non-starters here on the Orchard Motorsport Cork 20 include Kevin Kelleher, Brendan Cumiskey, Donagh Kelly.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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