Early news from stage 3, the second run through Ballinascarthy, is that Tim McNulty was fastest and both Kevin Kelleher and Brian O’Mahony lost time with mechanical problems on their respective cars. The sun is now breaking through the cloud cover and the temperature is rising which has made the roads a lot drier. First time through that Ballinascarthy stage Tim McNulty recorded 10m46s. How has knocked that down to 10m15s with Denis Cronin 2nd fastest on 10.22. Last year’s winner Lima McCarthy was 10.34 in his Corolla.
Kevin Kelleher pulled his Lancer into the side of the road halfway through the stage and was reportedly working under the bonnet and dropped over 2 minutes. Brian O’Mahony also stopped to work at his Clio and he seems to have lost about 5m. Billy McLelland finished the stage with some bodywork damage to his Lancer, but his time was pretty respectable.
News of further retirements: Neil Williams stopped with engine problems on his Escort. Sam Moffett made it into service but the turbo had blown and he could well have run over maximum lateness getting the unit changed. Looking back to stage 2, John Hendy/Brian Daniels who are running at No.59 are setting a cracking pace and had squeezed ahead of Damien McCarthy/Eamonn Hayes to lead the hotly contested class 11.
On Rally Argentina Hanninen was fastest through stages 2 and 3, 4s up on Kris Meeke on stage 2 and 1s up through stage 3. Kris is still feeling his way on the Argentinian roads, as it is all new to him. Hanninen was always gong to be the man to beat as he has good experience of the rally. Guy Wilks has been a couple of seconds per stages down on Meeke but is still well in the picture.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
