Showing his usual early speed Declan Boyle set a fantastic time on the first stage, the 12.8km Skehanagh stage. The Tarmac Champion commented here at service. `It was a bit slippy under braking for the chicanes and the last half mile was particularly slippy, otherwise we had a good steady run`. Donagh Kelly was just over 6s away from Declan Boyle`s time with Sam Moffett a further 4s back. Both drivers reported a good clean run. When Garry Jennings finished the stage he seemed a bit despondent to be over 11s down on the leader. Eugene Donnelly was 5th fastest and he told us. `I do not know about the time but I really enjoyed it. We were on the rev limiter lots of times in top gear, it was a great run.`
Not so happy was Eugene`s team mate Dean Raftery. His Mini WRC was reportedly on a great pace but then the car clicked into safe mode and it was a real struggle to get the Mini to the stage finish, and on here to service. Dean has lost a fair bit of time but hopefully he may be able to keep going. Another local driver to hit trouble was Pat Kelly. His Subaru is reported to be stopped with transmission trouble on the road section, having completed the stage at slow speed.
In the National category Damien Gallagher said he did not really get in the groove for that opening stage but he was still fastest from Brian Brogan, Brian did lose a few seconds when he got caught up behind the Kelly struggling Subaru. Mickey Conlon was in 4th behind Liam Howlett. Mickey`s Escort was suffering from a soft brake pedal. Liam Howlett told us that he concentrated on keeping it tidy and it clearly paid off.
Further stories include: Brendan Cumiskey is leading GpN as he settles in to his new Subaru and Brian O`Keefe is 2nd GpN. Aaron McHale is 3rd and remarked that he is a bit rusty after his rally lay off. Pauric Duffy was 7th o/a in the International times despite having lost some time when he caught a Civic. Joe McGonigle was happy to have finished his first proper stage in his recently acquired Skoda S2000 and was even happier to learn that he was almost 3s faster than Jonny Greer who is driving a new Citroen Ds3 R5. Jonny of course is having to learn all about this new Citroen here today. Not so happy is James Belton, his Fiesta S2000 blew a head gasket on the way to the ceremonial start last night.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL www.rallynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter & Facebook @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
