A great crowd and bright conditions greeted the drivers as they crossed the start ramp in Banbridge main street and then it was out towards the first stage, the 8.71 mile Lough Island Reavy test. The fast undulating road between Rathfriand and Castlewellan was quite a test for the crews. There were no real mishaps amongst the top drivers and as can be seen above Eugene Donnelly was fastest by just 0.2 of a second from Peadar Hurson with Derek McGarrity 3rd fastest.
McGarrity reckoned he completely messed up the final hairpin in the stage or his time would have been even faster. He said he went into the corner about 3 gears too high. Eugene Donnelly said before the start that the suspension on his Skoda was absolutely superb but he was a wee bit worried that he might not have the power of the Subarus and the Fords. The stages on the rally are bumpy so a superbly handling car will certainly pay off and so far Eugene has proven his pedigree with the fastest time and that was despite thinking that he had picked too soft a tyre for the conditions.
No.1 seed Gareth MacHale also thought he had too soft a compound rubber on his Focus. Aaron MacHale had a big moment on a massive jump in the stage and has cracked the windscreen of his Focus. Tim McNulty and Eamonn Boland both reported good clean runs, no troubles. Darren Gass said that his Impreza was sliding all over the place, getting no grip. He was on a hard compound tyre and reckoned he should have been on a medium.
There were 9 Mitsubishi Lancers started in the Evo Challenge section of the rally but one of them, Brendan Cumiskey, is in trouble at the end of that first stage. His Lancer sustained a broken radiator when it landed very heavily after a jump. Latest news is that Brendan has got a hose from a nearby house stretched across the front garden and is trying to get the radiator filled up.
Sean Flanagan is driving Mark Nangle’s Group N Impreza this time and although he finds the car slightly different to his own, maybe less power but a well balanced car, he leads Group N. Alan Carmichael was only a couple of seconds down on Flanagan and he is being cautious in his new Lancer.
Some more times from that opening stage: Paddy White was on 8.32.9 and said he is a bit rusty. Rory Byrne in the Modern Tyres Lancer did 8.41.3. Willie Mavitty in the older model Lancer did 8.35.6. Stanley Ballantine did 8.39.9. Jer O’Donovan, a long way from his Bantry home, set a time of 8.40.4 in his green Impreza.
On a different theme one of the co drivers, Noel Anderson, has found a HANS device strap at parc ferme and has left it here with us in the Vito. If you have lost this device – please come and see us!
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Michael & Zoe Patterson) *For SMS results text RALLY ITC to 53030 (Irl) or 60066 (UK): Text STOP to switch off. Cost 30c/25p
