UNOFFICIAL NATIONAL L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 8
1st (18) Eugene Meegan/Sarah Whelan (BMW) 1.04.42.2
2nd (19) Jack Newman/Donal Lennon (Escort) 1.05.15.7
3rd (20) Ed Murphy/John McCarthy (Escort) 1.05.59.7
4th (29) Liam Howlett/Enda Kennedy (Escort) 1.07.22.8
5th (24) Charlie Hickey/Johnny Hickey (Escort) 1.07.27.5
6th (31) Jason Ryan/Peter Falvey (Starlet) 1.07.42.8
Wall to wall blue skies, beautiful sunshine, rising temperatures, meant that the stages this afternoon have been really fast and enjoyable for the competitors. Garry Jennings was in particularly good form at the end of stage 7. He had found a penny lying on the ground in the service area, which he said this always brings him good luck. His hunch about the broken wire to the map light on his Subaru affecting dash board computer read out transpired to be correct, and everything now seems to be fine. Garry was 5s faster than Alastair Fisher with Donagh Kelly a further 1s back. Sam Moffett was 2s in arrears of the flying Focus WRC in front. Alastair reported a lot of gravel on the stage but he kept his Modern Tyres backed Fiesta on a very soft compound Pirelli and it seemed to work. Sam had upped his tyres one grade and they took a while to heat up.
Just over a second covered the first 4 cars through stage 8 with Donagh Kelly fastest by 0.6 of a second from Garry Jennings. Garry’s co driver Rory Kennedy said. ‘This has been a good day. We came here on the back foot after West Cork and Garry drove well today.’ Donagh Kelly commented. ‘We made a few changes to the suspension, introduced a bit more low speed into the dampers so the car would not roll as much. Lets see what the weather brings in the morning for the classic stages, Molls Gap, Ballaghbeama and Caragh Lake.’ Alastair Fisher was last here in 2010 when he won group N and feels that he can hold his own in the morning over stages like Ballaghbeama against the big cars.
Keith Cronin is now running up with the top cars again, but his times are just a few seconds in arrears of Fisher and Moffett. Keith was shaking his head at stage finish and he said. ‘The engine is dying at high speeds’. Owen Murphy is now almost matching times with Alan Ring and Stephen Wright so they are having their own battle for top 10 positions.
David Guest continues to lead group N from Paul Barrett. Guest has a second hand driver’s door fitted to his Lancer following a coming together with Cronin’s car earlier at a control. That stage 7 was stopped briefly when John Bonner crashed his Escort into a tree on a square left corner. There was some smoke coming from under the car and several drivers stopped to lend assistance. John and co-driver Leon Jordan are reported to be OK. News is coming in that Joe McGonigle’s Skoda has stopped in SS8 with a mechanical problem.
On the Pirelli Rally in Cumbria David Bogie now leads from Matthew Wilson. Marty McCormack & David Moynihan are 5th. Rob Duggan in his Vauxhall Adam is leading his class.
The beautiful Bertie Book ‘King Fisher’ is for sale at Mike Moriarty’s Centra store in Farranfore. We have a couple of books for sale as well in the silver Mercedes Vito at service. We would also like to thank Brian Duggan very much indeed for all his help today.
More news in morning: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL & ZOE PATTERSON www.rallynews.net *Follow Rally News on Twitter and Facebook @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
