RALLY NEWS No.8 - End of Stage 12 - Sunday @ 13:04:36
RALLY NEWS NO.8
UNOFFICIAL INT. L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 12
1st (1) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 1.19.36.6
2nd (3) Alastair Fisher/Gordon Noble (Fiesta R5) 1.20.35.2
3rd (5) Roy White/James O’Brien (Fiesta WRC) 1.20.43.9
4th (6) Sam Moffett/Karl Atkinson (Fiesta R5) 1.21.06.5
5th (91) Robert Barrable/Damien Connolly (Fiesta R5) 1.22.59.1
6th (94) Stephen Wright/Arthur Kierans (Fiesta R5) 1.23.11.3
7th Joe McGonigle 8th Josh Moffett 9th Stephen McCann 10th B.Cumiskey
UNOFFICIAL NAT/ L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 12
1st (15) Damien Tourish/Domhnall McAlaney (Escort) 1.25.37.2
2nd (88) Gary Kiernan/Keith Moriarty (Escort) 1.25.56.7
3rd (16) Kevin Eves/William Lynch (Corolla) 1.27.25.6
4th (26) Patrick McHugh/Pauric O’Donnell (Escort) 1.27.35.4
5th (32) Tommy Cahill/Enda O’Leary (Lancer) 1.28.30.3
6th (20) Richard Whelan/James Whelan (BMW 1M) 1.28.42.9
7th Eugene Meegan 8th Jason McSweeney 9th Vivian Hamill 10 E Murphy
The severe overnight frost meant the first 2 Sunday stages did not take place. Stage 12 became the opener and it had to be shortened because of a problem on the stage. The stage was to be 13.6km but has been reduced to approximately 5km. Garry Jennings was fastest and he covered the distance in 3m5s. Garry said at the finish of the stage. “It was hard to get going after hanging about but the stage was good.”
Alastair Fisher and Roy White were joint 2nd fastest, both recording 3m06.2s. Alastair said “We took it fairly easy but conditions and the road were good”. Roy echoed the thoughts of Fisher when he said. “I could have gone harder especially under braking”. Sam Moffett was 2s slower than Fisher which leaves the gap between the top two R5s at 31.3s. Robert Barrable had a good run, a fraction quicker than Moffett. Robert said “That was a nice run, but short”.
Joe McGonigle had some tyre pressure issues with his Skoda but got them sorted at stage start and recorded a good time. Brendan Cumiskey was also on a good pace despite rearranging the bodywork of his new Skoda last night.
In the race between William Creighton and Jon Armstrong, William in his Peugeot was 9s faster than Armstrong in the M-Sport Fiesta.
In the national Rally Damien Tourish continues to hold the lead but Gary Kiernan reduced the gap to 19.5s with a fastest time through SS12. Kiernan knows he is running out of mileage to do anything about the flying Tourish in front. Kevin Eves in 3rd place National made a brave tyre choice, picking a slick dry weather tyre for his Millington engined Corolla. Kevin said it took a while for the tyres to warm up but they were good towards stage end, and should work well through stage 13.
More later: BRIAN & LIZ & MICHAEL & ZOE PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
