Garry Jennings was fastest through stage 6 to leave his leading margin at 9.7s over Darren Gass at the end of this first day. Sam Moffett is a very strong 3rd, 16s behind Tarmac Champion Gass.
In the National Rally we reported that Manus Kelly had stopped his Escort at the start of stage 4 and we did not have a time for him. It transpired that it was no more than a broken intercom socket and Manus was eventually able to tackle the stage and set a respectable time at that. However Gary McPhillips would appear to be leading the Nationals by 17s from Manus Kelly with Rodney Wilton 3rd a further 9s back. This is subject to ratification this evening when all the times are checked out.
When Garry Jennings brought his Subaru into service he told us. `I knew before the start that it would be Boyle and Gass who would be going to put it up to us. That is the way it has turned out. I do not think there is much left in the car but I have got a bit left. We have changed the diff settings and I am getting more knowledge of the car. It is some craic`. Darren Gass reported no problems with his machine at all but did say that he changed the tyres today and that made all the difference. Sam Moffett has been a real revelation through today`s stages. He reckons there is a bit more to come and was asking Kenny McKinstry to move the anti lag/response system up from stage 1 to stage 2 to give his Subaru more pick up out of the junctions.
Derek McGarrity in 4th place was having an ongoing problem with his Focus in that there was no dash readout of the gears. Derek explained. `The readout has just disappeared but when you are flat out in 5th gear and shifting down for junctions and tight corners it is very difficult not knowing what gear you are in. The Focus has much longer gearing than the Subaru. It is totally different. But at least we did not stall the car this time`. John O`Donnell did stall his Subaru in stage 6 that cost him about 10s. Seamus Leonard, 2nd here last year, was furious at himself at losing 20s on the opening stage today when he overcooked the clutch. He went on to say here at service. `I am happy enough to lose 6 to 10s on the guys at the front knowing I have got such an old car compared to the competition`.
Donagh Kelly seemed a lot happier after that loop as he gets to grip with his Focus WRC and said. `It will take time to settle in to the left hand drive but I am enjoying it`. Darragh O`Riordan was having the springs changed on his Fiesta WRC as he was still very unhappy the way the car was bouncing about over the bumps. Darragh`s engineer Tom Gahan is not here this weekend as sadly his mother Teresa passed away yesterday. We send our deepest condolences.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Michael & Zoe Patterson) *Follow RallyNews on Twitter @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
