RALLY NEWS NO.6 Service/Sunday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6
1st (3) Keith Cronin/Marshall Clarke (Impreza WRC) 50.38.5
2nd (13) Eugene Donnelly/Mark Mini (Mini WRC) 50.51.0
3rd (2) Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Impreza WRC) 51.25.1
4th (7) Declan & Brian Boyle (Impreza WRC) 51.30.3
5th (6) Donagh Kelly/Kevin Flanagan (Impreza WRC) 52.19.3
6th (5) Thomas Fitzmaurice/Fionn Foley (Impreza WRC) 53.29.7
7th (4) Garry Jennings/Neil Doherty (Impreza WRC) 54.02.7
8th (8) John Joe Fleming/Robbie Ward (Focus WRC) 54.13.4
9th (11) Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Lancer N) 54.43.1
10th (10) Sam Moffett/James O`Reilly (Lancer N) 54.45.8
UNOFFICIAL NATIONAL L/BOARD AFTER 6
1st Fergus O`Meara 59.59.3: 2nd Tom Flaherty 55.59.8: 3rd Chris Armstrong 56.05.6: 4th Jim McKenna 56.23.5: 5th Pat Kelly 56.27.8: 6th David Armstrong 57.15.5
Quite a heavy drizzle swept across the Galway countryside as the top cars left service for the final loop of 3 special stages. Keith Cronin fitted four second-hand Pirelli tyres and they certainly seem to have worked as he devastated the opposition to move into the lead of this Safety Direct Galway International Rally. Triple British Rally Champion Cronin set a time of 9.52 as against Eugene Donnelly in the Mini WRC with a 10.05. Derek McGarrity and Declan Boyle were very closely matched so the race for 3rd is certainly not over. Derek did a 10.18.1. Declan Boyle a 10.18.5. Donagh Kelly 10.18.9.
Thomas Fitzmaurice in 6th place is continuing his learning curve with his recently acquired ex Darragh O`Riordan Impreza WRC S12B to hold on to 6th place but the Tralee man was over 20s in arrears of Donagh Kelly through that Ballyfa test. Garry Jennings continues to languish in 7th place. Garry looks distinctly off colour and his Subaru seems to be handling very erratically. He has the car all shapes coming down into junctions. John Joe Fleming is very steady in 8th place. JJ and his co driver Robbie Ward are on their 21st Galway International as a team and although JJ loves this Focus, and it really is a brilliant car, he is just not comfortable with left hand drive.
Alan Ring continues to hold the GpN lead but he is coming more and more pressure from Sam Moffett. Sam was 8s faster than Munster Joinery man Ring through that 5th stage to leave the gap between the pair at just 2s. Sam`s young brother Josh seemed to be making a charge a couple of stages ago, but his time through stage 6 was not anything too special so he is almost 12s behind his big brother. Shane Maguire is concentrating on keeping it neat and tidy here on this Galway Rally and he is 4th GpN, 12th o/a.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (with thanks to Michael & Zoe) www.rallynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter @Pacenotes or @ Real_RallyNews
