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| West Cork Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.7 - After SS8 - Saturday @ 17:45:11 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.7 Service/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 8 – End of Leg 1
1st (3) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 1.13.07.5
2nd (2) John Dalton/Gwynfor Jones (Darrian) 1.13.40.3
3rd (5) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (Impreza WRC) 1.13.46.3
4th (6) Phil Collins/Derek Brannigan (Escort) 1.16.00.8
5th (7) Keith Cronin/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 1.16.55.2
6th (17) Frank Kelly/Liam Brennan (Escort) 1.18.39.1
In the brilliantly dry sunny late afternoon conditions the top drivers had a ball over the final 2 Saturday stages, Ring and Dunworley. Once again John Dalton was fastest over the Ring stage and on stage 8, Dunworle, it was Liam McCarthy fastest by the narrowest of margins from Dalton. Dalton’s performance this afternoon has moved him from 4th to 2nd and he is now approximately 33s behind McCarthy in the overall standings. The Sunday leg has another tough 8 stages so there is still all to play for.
Jim Harrison & Harvey Bell retired their Subaru on the last stage today. The English visitors were lying 3rd at the time and Ashley Field & Janice Moore retired their Darrian from 6th place when the car slipped off the road a couple of hundred yards into the Dunworley stage.
Denis Cronin/Helen O’Sullivan slipped from 2nd to 3rd on that last loop, Denis’ Subaru having 5th gear trouble and occasionally slipping out of 4th which isn’t a good sign. Keith Cronin settled himself and took a slightly more conservative approach and he holds 5th at day’s end. Keith did lose a couple of seconds towards the end of the stage when a turbo pipe came a bit adrift on his Lancer. He is still the group N leader and also the top Evo Challenge points scorer for today. Frank Kelly has now come into 6th place. His Escort was suffering a broken exhaust manifold towards the end and he was very worried about the car going on fire. John Dalton summed up today’s rallying when he said. “It was absolutely brilliant, very special”.
Phil Collins in 4th place said. “A great day but now we have nobody to chase, nobody chasing us, it is slightly lonely”. In the Citroen Racing Trophy Barry Evans led after stage 6 with Adrian McElhinney 4s down and Sam Moffett a further 3 back. We await news of the C2R2s through stage with interest. Marty McCormack was leading class 6 and in 15th o/a after stage 6. He is having slight overheating brake problems, as much a symptom of the very fast stages as Marty’s penchant for the left foot braking. We reported earlier that Stanley Ballantine had had an accident and had put his Lancer briefly on it’s roof. We think Stanley only had a spin and it was Ger O’Donovan who put his car on the roof. In Group N after 6 stages Mark Nangle was 2nd in the category with his Impreza to Keith Cronin and Stanley Ballantine was 3rd. Ladies crew Sarah & Amy Moynihan were lying 4th group N in their Lancer.
In the NI championship McGrady Insurance Bishopscourt Rally Derek McGarrity was heading for victory in his Subaru from Connor McCloskey (Focus) with Seamus Leonard 3rd. Mark Massey won group N in his Lancer and Trevor Moore just came out on top in the 2wd category after a great battle with Camillus Bradley.
More news in the morning: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Kieran O’Callaghan and Brian Duggan)
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