Early dramas from the opening Saturday stage include - Craig Breen stopped. Sam Moffett was fastest in the International. Former multiple Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly has put his Mini WRC off the road.
Craig Breen`s Peugeot 208 has reportedly succumbed to fuel pump failure. He did have to stop and put coolant into the radiator on the way to the stage and there was also a massive amount of rebuild work done at service last night. The story on Sam Moffett is that he is determined to have a real go today and sees it as a great opportunity to compete with the visiting top European drivers. Sam is less than 10ss of German driver Sepp Wiegand who said at stage finish that he was shocked at Sam`s time. Robert Barrable had a good run and it is brilliant that he is lying 2nd. Rally leader Esapekka Lappi said that now it is a matter of survival and concentrating on getting to the finish.
Daniel McKenna had a good run but is not pushing so hard and said that the pressure is off now that Korhonen has retired from the rally following an accident. Robert Woodside`s Lancer had power steering failure last night on the way into service so the mechanics had to concentrate on that. This meant a change of brake pads did not happen and Robert is in brake fade trouble this morning.
In the National Rally Garry Jennings finished that opening test outside Dromore this morning a bit worried that he had a puncture on his Subaru. It transpired that he did not and is now worried that it could be a driver shaft that has gone. Declan Boyle felt he had picked too soft a tyre and the car is moving about. The temperature at the stage finish has risen from 4 degrees to 16 between 9am and 10am, so anyone who is marginal on tyres could be in bother before the lunch time service. The Eugene Donnelly incident happened on a technical bit of stage on a slowing down hill square right over bridge into square left and his Mini is parked off the road at the square left. Derek McGarrity reported this and he reckons that he lost 3-4s checking that Eugene and Paul were OK. Declan Gallagher reported a steady run and is a wee bit in no man`s land as regards the times. Camillus Bradley was fastest 2wd in his Escort and was a bit surprised as he was cautious over the gravelly sections. Alistair Cochrane had a very good time and he reckons it was because he was fully awake having been up from dawn milking his cows!
Finally for now we wish Co. Cork journalist/photographer Martin Walsh very best wishes for his birthday today.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net with thanks to Michael & Zoe Patterson *Follow RallyNews on Twitter @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
