With the rain starting to fall here at the Mall in Armagh it could change the complexion of the rally this afternoon, but for the moment it is more or less status quo at the top with Eamonn Boland fastest through stages 10 and 11. Kevin Lynch was 2nd fastest through stage 10 and Derek McGarrity 2nd fastest through stage 11 from Lynch. Kenny McKinstry also put a push on through that stage 11 and was 4th quickest.
In Group N Mark Higgins continues to set the pace from Guy Wilks while as we reported on the last Rally News Darren Gass has had his Lancer on its roof and has lost a fair bit of time.
When Eamonn Boland arrived in here to the regroup control he said. “Going hard, but I don’t want to do anything stupid. At least I’m keeping this fellow (nodding towards Lynch) behind me!” As for Kevin, he reckoned that he should have changed the tyres, that his Subaru is still floating about on the road, dropping time. Mark Higgins reported a good run while Guy Wilks said. “The car is losing the back end on junctions and I’m pushing like hell, but can’t make anything of it. The service boys think they know what the problem is and they are going to sort it out now, but I can’t see any change in our situation unless it rains this afternoon”. And it now looks like Guy will get his wish. Gwyndaf Evans was very non-committal when he arrived at the control, he had a good time in stage 10 but not brilliant in 11, but he wasn’t saying why.
Both Derek McGarrity and Kenny McKinstry picked up their coat tails through stage 11, both very much on the pipe. Seamus Leonard stopped with Darren Gass to make sure he was OK so he lost some time in stage 10 which hopefully he will be compensated for. He then set a decent time through stage 11. When queried on his earlier lethargy Seamus explained that he doesn’t really know why but it could be maybe just a soft brake pedal sapped his confidence. Phillip Morrow continues to do a good job in the Subaru but explained that he is getting a little bit more under steer now that the stages are wider and faster, but he thinks he knows what to do to get the car set up properly. Darren Gass explained about his accident. “It was into a square left square right, I just caught the grass under braking, it was stupid. The car is not handling great, the front wheel is knocked back a little but it should be OK after service”
Keith Cronin has now moved into the top 10 through some consistently fast times. Co driver Greg Shinnors said. “We’re keeping it clean and controlled. We would liked to have changed tyres for the spares before that last stage but there just wasn’t enough road timing. The tyres were done.” Sebastien Ogier has kept the gap between himself and Brian O’Mahony fairly constant through that loop of stages, 21s separating the Frenchman from the Cork man. In the traditional manner of Ulster irreverence, the French man could well be re-named “Seb O’Gears”. Adam Gould is further back in his Clio over 3m down on O’Mahony. Danny Barry/s co driver Martin Brady remarked. “Danny is driving the wheels off the car but losing ground. Nik Elsmore has now got ahead of us and of course it is all about Evo points”. Keith Cronin is currently the top points scorer here from Elsmore from Danny Barry from Neil McCance. David Bogie is doing Super Rally so we don’t know how many points he is going to pick up. In the Citroen C2R2s Adrian McElhinney still leads from Marty McCormack with Martin Tynan 3rd, Jason Pritchard 4th.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (our thanks to Michael Patterson & Sammy Hamill): www.rallynews.net
