BREAKING NEWS…..No sign of Alastair Fisher at the end of stage 4.
On the 2nd run over the Caherduggan stage Keith Cronin was fastest by almost 5s from Alastair Fisher. When Alastair stopped at the stage finish control he waited for Keith to clock in and Alastair was clearly disappointed to lose the time. Keith Cronin said. ‘I am a lot happier with the car. More confident but still not 100 per cent’ Roy White dropped quite a few seconds in the stage although he did hold on to his 3rd position. He said ‘I stalled at the start. It was my own fault. I did not initiate the launch procedure properly’. (Maybe the beard got in the way!!)…..In 4th and 5th places there was hardly a whisker between the times of Sam and Josh Moffett. Both drivers were a lot happier having softened off the suspension set up on their respective Fiesta R5s. Jonny Greer rounds off the top half dozen and he reported no problems. Stephen Wright in 7th said there is more to come.
Kevin Kelleher in 8th picked a super soft compound tyre for that stage and as the ambient temperature continues to rise it seemed to be the right choice. Owen Murphy had a decent time 6.13.1 as against the fastest being Keith Cronin on 5.47.5. However, having lost so much time in SS2 Owen is now almost 6m down on the leaders. Coming into the top 10 is young Welshman Meirion Evans having recovered from the earlier puncture on his Citroen DS3R5. David Guest continues to lead group N. Unofficial news is that Gus Kearney’s Sepam backed Lancer has a broken drive train at the start of S3
In the National Rally Eugene Meegan got ahead of Tommy Doyle through stage 3, Tommy reckoned that on the drying roads there is no way his Clio could match the power of Meegan’s BMW. Brian Brogan held on to 3rd place despite spinning his Escort at a junction. Brian said ‘It should not have happened but I am lucky I did not hit something’. Jason Ryan lost a little time when his Civic clattered against a chicane. John O’Sullivan rolled his Fiesta R2 at a chicane in stage 1 right in front of Joe Connolly’s Fiesta R5. Joe was not delayed and O’Sullivan and co driver Niall Burns reported OK. Art McCarrick is still going strong in the National despite his Civic having fan belt/power steering problems. Art has a team with him from the Blood Transfusion service and they are offering advice to the public here at the service area today.
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