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| Ulster International rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.10 - After SS11 - Saturday @ 14:29:56 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.10 End of Stage 11/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 11 CAIRNCASTLE
1st (2) Gareth MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.21.02.9
2nd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paddy Toner (Fabia WRC) 1.21.08.7
3rd (4) Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Impreza WRC) 1.21.54.3
4th (5) Mark Higgins/Bryan Thomas (Impreza N) 1.24.23.6
5th (7) Gwyndaf Evans/Chris Patterson (Lancer N) 1.24.34.0
6th (10) Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 1.25.59.8
7th (11) Jonny Greer/Kirsty Riddick (Lancer N) 1.28.19.9
8th (19) Kris Princen/Bram Eelbode (Clio) 1.28.55.2
9th (22) Brian O'Mahony/John HIggins (Clio) 1.29.26.6
10th (21) Matti Rantanen/Mikko Lukka (Clio) 1.29.42.9
11th Alan Carmichael: 12th Pat Kirk: 13th Marty McCormack: 14th David Bogie
News from stage 12: Donnelly fastest: MacHale still leads. Gap now 2.9s Gwyndaf fastest GpN: Higgins still leads: Gap 3.4s
With weather conditions improving all the time the drivers are very much on dry weather race tyres for these final 4 stages. Through stage 10 Lisnamuck Gareth MacHale was half a second quicker than Eugene Donnelly with Derek McGarrity a further 4.5s back. Gwyndaf Evans was fastest GpN by just over a second from Mark Higgins. Brian O’Mahony was 8s faster than Kris Princen in the race for class R3 honours.
Gareth MacHale said at the finish of stage 11. “A great stage, like Finland on tar”. Eugene Donnelly commented. “We went reasonably well but not ten tenths”. Derek McGarrity said. “We weren’t going mad, can’t really improve now unless someone in front has a problem”.
This is the first full rally where Mark Higgins has used glasses and he managed to get a dollop of moisture on them in the middle of stage 11 and joked. “Must be getting old now to need these”. Gwyndaf Evans said. “Nice to have a brake pedal again”. Alastair Fisher reported no problems. Nor did Belgian driver Kris Princen. It is a matter now of Princen keeping it steady through the remaining 3 stages to increase his advantage in the Clio series. Jonny Greer was having a look at his Lancer’s fuel tank at the finish of the stage but everything looked OK. Dave Weston Jnr who lost so much time on the Slieve Gallion stage said it is now just a matter of getting experience for the rest of the day. He did over shoot the square right junction after the bridge that he and many others overshot this morning. Alan Carmichael is really struggling without the 4th gear in his Lancer. The car is dropping off the boost when he goes from 3rd to 5th. Finnish driver Matti Rantanen picked the wrong tyres for that Cairncastle stage but feels they will be good on the next one, Slemish. Marty McCormack continues to lead the Citroen Racing Trophy but Jason Pritchard, who was his closest pursuer, has crashed his Citroen C2R2 heavily. Happily the crew is reportedly OK. Andrew Hockridge is now 2nd in the Citroens.
On the National Rally Camillus Bradley now leads from the similar Escort of Declan McNaughton with Enda McNulty (Lancer) 3rd. George Robinson did lead earlier but his Impreza stopped in SS9 with a mechanical problem. Gary White & Seamus O’Connell have also stopped with mechanical difficulties. Camillus Bradley fitted a new engine before the rally with different power characteristics and it took him a few stages to get into his stride.
IRC Barum Rally: Czech Rep: After SS6: Kopecky leads from Loix with Bassos 3rd and Kris Meeke 4th 53s off the lead. Kris spun in SS5 and dropped at least 11s but he was 2nd fastest in SS6: More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL www.rallynews.net *For SMS results text RALLY ITC to 53030 (Irl) or 60066 (UK). Text STOP to switch off. Cost 30c/25p. Provided by stagetimes.com
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