NATIONAL: 1st Daniel McKenna 1.38.11.9: 2nd Barry Meade 1.40.42.4: 3rd Pat Kelly 1.43.13.8: SUNDAY RUN: 1st Keith Cronin: 20.48.5: 2nd Garry Jennings: 21.43.1: 3rd Jonny Greer: 21.51.0
Gareth MacHale was fastest through stage 11 to extend his lead over Craig Breen to 1m17s. Tim McNulty seemed to be on a charge with fastest time over the opening stage but then dropped over 7s to Gareth through stage 11. Top runner Jer O’Donovan unfortunately crashed out of 9th place when his GpN Impreza got out of phase after a big jump on stage 11. The car is reportedly fairly badly damaged but Jer and co driver Sean Hayde are reported to be OK. Gareth MacHale said when he brought his Focus into service. “We were running a soft compound slick tyre with a small cut to dispel the water. Maybe it wasn’t ideal but we kept it tidy and we are just doing what we have to do”. Craig Breen continues to do a fantastic job in his new Fiesta S2000 and reported no problems whatsoever over the opening 2 Sunday stages.
Tim McNulty told us. “Everything was perfect, notes and everything all working well, we just got caught out on a slippy patch and slid on at a junction”. Alastair Fisher had 2 spins on the opening stage but then a very good run through stage 11 to move up from 5th to 4th ahead of Aaron MacHale. Alastair felt his tyre choice wasn’t perfect for the first stage but perhaps worked a little better on the 2nd. Interestingly, Aaron MacHale reported that his Focus took a bit of a wobble after the big jump at the start of stage 11 which is perhaps the same place where Jer O’Donovan had his accident. Aaron also told of a bit of a spin on a 3 right. Daniel McKenna continues to lead the Nationals and indeed had fastest Escort time through stage 11, 5s up on Barry Meade. Daniel had a bit of a moment when he clipped the left front wheel of the Escort, and then towards the end of the stage was a little worried about having a puncture, and backed off slightly.
Mervyn Wedlock has got up to 4th in the Nationals behind Pat |Kelly and ahead of Tom Flaherty.
Keith Cronin is doing the Sunday Run and he reckons he lost a few seconds on stage 11 with an overshoot. For the last couple of miles of the stage he thought his Lancer was rolling about a bit and he is wondering if something was damaged in yesterday’s accident. Marty McCormack, who has slipped to 2nd behind Robert Barrable in the Citroen C2R2 category, told us that the car had 2 front punctures this morning, not one. Marty admits to clipping one front tyre against a rock but doesn’t know why the other one went down.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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