Just outside the top 10: 11th Pat Donegan: 12th Wesley Patterson 13th Phil Collins: 14th Jason Ryan: 15th Adrian Hetherington
The sleepy little village of Lislevane was rocked with vibration as the leading cars in this West Cork Rally finished the opening Ring stage. As can be seen above, Donagh Kelly in his Focus WRC was fastest and that was despite his tyres overheating at one point and losing their grip. Daragh O`Riordan snicked a bale with his Fiesta WRC on the way to 2nd fastest and James Stafford seemed to have a clear run on his way to 3rd. Robert Barrable reported a slight misfire with his Fiesta R5 but still managed a decent time. Denis Cronin`s co driver Coleman Hurley said their performance through the stage was a bit patchy, but still their time was very respectable. Owen Murphy`s Lancer suffered a punctured in the stage but he was still 6th. Kevin Kelleher had a fairly wild look in his eye when he got to stage finish, and talked of massive clutch slip in his Impreza on the opening few miles of that Ring test. Declan Gallagher in his Starlet and Mick O`Brien in his Focus WRC had relatively clear runs to 8th and 9th. Frank Kelly said his stage was `crazy` as he settled down to his new Escort and of course Frank did not have a proper reconnaissance.
Unfortunately, there were a couple of cars from the top lot that did not appear at stage finish while we were still there. Melvyn Evans` Subaru was reportedly up an escape road at a junction. We thought he may have got going but it would appear not. Damien McCarthy`s Puma was apparently parked in the stage. The Lancer of Jason McSweeney suffered a major blow up at a junction towards stage finish. Co-driver Martin Brady reported. `The marshals helped to put out a small fire when the engine blew. We were very disappointed to go out of the rally. We put the OK board up and our unhappiness was compounded when Jason`s brother in law, David Guest, came down the stage with Ruth McSweeney co-driving, and they were so surprised to see us in trouble, that their Impreza overshot the junction`. (Ruth is Jason`s wife!)
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