RALLY NEWS No.4 - Fermoy Service - Saturday @ 13:06:18
RALLY NEWS NO.4 Fermoy/Service/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL INT/ L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 4 Gurteen
1ST (2) Donagh Kelly/Conor Foley (Focus WRC) 26.18.6
2nd (1) Daragh O/Riordan/Tony McDaid (Fiesta WRC) 26.19.3
3rd (3) Keith Cronin/Shane Buckley (Citroen DS3R5) 26.40.2
4th (4) Melvyn Evans/Mark Glennerster (Impreza WRC) 26.41.6
5th (6) Roy White/James O`Brien (Fiesta WRC) 26.59.4
6th (7) Stephen Wright/Mikie Galvin (Fiesta R5) 27.39.1
Joe McGonigle 28.01.0: David Guest 28.16.4: Brendan Cumiskey 28.42.8:
UNOFFICIAL NAT/ L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 4
1st (12) Declan Gallagher/Ryan Moore (Starlet rwd) 27.01.6
2nd (28) Eugene Meegan/Sarah Whelan (BMW M1) 27.54.2
3rd (5) Denis Cronin/Coleman Hurley (Impreza WRC) 28.04.2
4th (15) Phil Collins/Adrian Deasy (Escort) 28.09.1
5th (29) Enda O`Brien/John Butler (Escort) 28.14.8
6th (25) Mark Dolphin/Finbar Quirke (Escort) 28.31.9
Vincent McSweeney 28.35.6: Donal O`Brien 28.44.3: Ross Marshall 29.14.0: Andrew Fanning 29.39.3
Donegal man Donagh Kelly really turned the wick up on his Focus WRC through stage 4 and was almost 6s quicker than Daragh O`Riordan. This moves Kelly into the lead. Neither Donagh nor Daragh reported any real problems through the stage. With the sun now reaching its zenith here in Co. Cork the temperature of the roads is rising rapidly and many of the top drivers are now switching to harder compound tyres for the afternoon stages. Roy White in his new Fiesta WRC is inching ever closer to the fastest times, although Roy told us. `I`m not sticking my neck out`. His earlier worry about a noise in the back suspension seemed to be unfounded, although his mechanics did find a torn CV cover. Stephen Wright had a great time through stage 4 in his Fiesta R5 and he is a lot happier. Joe McGonigle on the other hand was not happy and he said. `I am not committed enough and I also spun the car at a real stupid spot`.
In Group N David Guest continues to set the pace. He had an earlier worry over a fluttery misfire out of slow junctions, but that has now been solved. Brendan Cumiskey locked himself out of his new Impreza Sti this morning and had to break a rear window to get in! Aaron MacHale in his Lancer is also going well.
In the National Rally Declan Gallagher set another great time and he said. `Everything is dead on, but a great shame that Frank Kelly has gone out`. Phil Collins has dropped a few seconds and a place on the National leaderboard as his Escort engine seems to be cutting out. He is going to have the ECU changed here at service, and it is all fingers crossed! Washington James is settling into the ex Roy White MG S2000. Apart from not having driven the car before the rally, Washington has never really experienced left-hand drive at all. Jason Ryan was in the National top 10 but we have an unconfirmed report that he has crashed his Starlet. Both driver and co-driver were out of the car and seemed OK. Scottish visitor Ross Marshall is lying just outside the top 6 in the Nationals and his co driver Dave Robson told us that this Cork 20 Rally for them is a warm up for the Mull Rally. Another driver on a warm up for Mull is Ian Chadwick, originally from Bolton, now running a garage in Cork. Ian has carried out a modification to the clutch mechanism of his Civic, but he is going to take the gearbox out and modify it a bit more at tonight`s service.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL & ZOE PATTERSON www.rallynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter/Facebook @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
