1st (12) Declan Gallagher/Ryan Moore (Starlet rwd) 1.38.08.9
2nd (28) Eugene Meegan/Sarah Whelan (BMW M1) 1.40.00.6
3rd (29) Enda O`Brien/John Butler (Escort) 1.40.26.5
4th (15) Phil Collins/Adrian Deasy (Escort) 1.40.51.9
5th (46) Donal O`Brien/Stephen Quinn (Escort) 1.42.12.2
6th (22) Vincent McSweeney/Damien Fleming (Civic) 1.43.05.2
Denis Cronin 1.43.21.2 Ross Marshall 1.44.09.0 James Fitzgerald 1.46.39.6
When the cars left service for the final loop of stages Donagh Kelly`s lead was almost 2m and his advantage seemed assured. However, there was drama in stage 12, Badgers Hill, when Donagh over-cooked it and his Focus WRC slid off the road backward into a ditch. Somehow, despite a punctured tyre and a broken rear valance Donagh got the car to the finish of the stage and only dropped a few seconds. Keith Cronin, his Citroen DS3 R5 back on full song, was fastest through the stage. Donagh changed the punctured tyre after the stage finish and has continued towards stage 13 in slightly abashed form. It brought back memories of last year` Lakes when he inherited the lead and then put his Focus on its roof in a ditch. Keith Cronin did admit that he pushed hard in the stage. Third placed Melvyn Evans was in the `get her home` frame of mind, as were most of the top drivers.
Stephen Wright continued his good form and admitted that he made a safe tyre choice for this final loop of stages. Joe McGonigle set a good time in his Skoda S2000 and commented that he was trying a different tyre, and although they took a while to warm up they were very good towards stage finish. David Guest is now in a wee Group N envelope, under no pressure from behind, and cannot catch McGonigle in front. Brendan Cumiskey blotted his copybook on that stage 12 when his Subaru suffered a puncture and he dropped almost a minute, to fall behind Duffy and Evans on the leaderboard. Duffy had some intercom problems earlier today but reported all well at the end of SS12.
In the National Rally Denis Cronin was fastest through stage 12. However, the West Cork man is still down in 7th place following the drive shaft problems with his Subaru yesterday. Enda O`Brien was 2nd fastest and best 2wd to reinforce his 3rd place. Declan Gallagher has a very safe buffer of almost a 2m lead over Eugene Meegan in 2nd. Donal O`Brien spun his Escort in SS12 and dropped approximately 30s. Gareth Lloyd was fastest Historic through stage 12 to maintain his lead. Ernie Graham is 2nd and Frank Cunningham 3rd, all in Escorts. In the Junior Rally after SS11 Rob Duggan still led from John O`Sullivan with Sean McGrath 3rd. More news – status quo resumed – Donagh Kelly fastest SS13. In the WRC Rally Corsica Latvala was the winner in his VW with Elfyn Evans 2nd in the M-Sport Fiesta. Mikkelsen was 3rd and Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle 4th in their Citroen. Craig Breen finished this difficult event in 17th place and 4th WRC2.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL & ZOE PATTERSON www.rallynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter & Facebook @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
