Early times from stage two, Fisher takes lead of rally.
For the last 15 years this Cork 20 Rally has been won by drivers in World Rally Cars. Could this be the year to break that mould? Keith Cronin in his Citroen DS3 R5 was fastest through that opening 11.9km Caherduggan stage by just a whisker from Alastair Fisher. Yes, Roy White in his Fiesta WRC is only 2s in arrears. It is a long rally of course and anything can happen over the next 2 days, but for the moment the spotlight is on Cronin and Fisher in their R5 machines battling it out for the Clonakilty Blackpudding Tarmac Championship. Keith Cronin had quite an upset before the rally when he damaged his Citroen in testing and he said at the end of that first stage this morning. ‘The car is OK. We drove steadily the roads are a bit deceptively slippy.’ Alastair Fisher said that he also struggled on occasion with the slippy roads and his Fiesta did not turn in well. Sam Moffett is also in the running for the Tarmac title and he reported that he was just bedding himself in on that opening stage.
Further stories from stage 1 are that Callum Duffy spun his S2500 Fabia and lost about 20s. Kevin Kelleher was on his first rip in the McKinstry Subaru and he found the brakes very sharp and hard to get used to but still set a decent time. Jason McSweeney/Shane Buckley crashed their Lancer in stage 1 and the emergency services attended to them. Some drivers were delayed in the stages as a result. Then the road was cleared and it was all stations go again.
Some changes to the entry list include – Pat Kearney non-starting in the Sepam Lancer because he is involved in a business trip to China. Aaron MacHale – non starter. Frank Cunningham has won the Tarmac Historic championship for this year and was due to start the rally this morning but has unexpectedly had to fly back to the US, so Ray Cunningham is now driving the Historic Escort. Young Gary McNamee has switched from the main rally to the Junior category to give himself more time to prepared his Civic that suffered a blown engine on the recent Clare Rally.
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