With just fourteen seconds covering the top three, the lead drivers on this Ace Signs Cork 20 International Rally have plenty to ponder on overnight. It could be hot and heavy stuff through Sunday’s six stages. Josh Moffett was fastest through stage eight, his brother Sam was second fastest and just 0.6 of a second separated the stage times of Keith Cronin and Roy White.
On stage seven, the second run over Inch, Sam Moffett was fastest by 0.9 sec from Keith Cronin with Roy White 3rd quickest and Josh Moffett 4th, just seconds between them. Keith Cronin said he went for a better tyre choice and it was better but he is still not confident, not pushing. Sam Moffett reported that he ‘couldn’t get into it’ at the start of the stage. Roy White felt that his run was 100%, no mistakes. Josh also had a good clean run. Kevin Kelleher was 15 seconds faster than his first run over the stage and he was a lot happier with his Impreza WRC. Callum Devine has made a couple of tweaks to his Opel Adam in his efforts to keep Marty Gallagher at bay. Callum has for example softened up the anti-roll bar and it seems to be working. Brendan Cumiskey nearly lost his eighth place when his Fiesta skidded into a field on a downhill square right. Luckily the gate was open and he only dropped about 30 seconds.
In the National section on stage seven Eugene Meegan in his BMW had an overshoot at a junction and dropped 15 seconds. Tommy Doyle feels he is boxing above his weight and needs a bigger engine in his Clio. Phil Collins had a recurrence of his Escort gear linkage problems. Jason Ryan lives not far from Fermoy and is getting his spare gear box for his Corolla brought to service and hopes to get it changed this evening. Owen Murphy has retired his Skoda with low oil pressure. Killarney’s Kevin O’Donoghue has retired his BMW with rear brake troubles. The Historics finished after stage six today and Ray Cunningham leads by 30 seconds from James O’Mahony with Duncan Williams 3rd, all in Escorts.
On the WRC Tour de Corse, Ogier in his VW has a 46 sec lead on Neuville (Hyundai). Craig Breen continues to do a solid job in his Citroen to hold fifth place. Elfyn Evans still leads RC2 in his R5 Fiesta and is tenth overall. As we reported earlier Kris Meeke retired his Citroen after colliding with a tree.
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