UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 14 Hayes Cross
1st (2) Tim McNulty/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 1.58.24.2
2nd (4) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (Impreza WRC) 1.59.53.0
3rd (3) John Dalton/Gwynfor Jones (Darrian) 1.01.33.3
4th (10) Daragh O'Riordan/Tony McDaid (Impreza WRC) 1.03.29.4
5th (15) Washington James/L. Jones-Davies (Darrian) 1.07.24
6th (20) Ed O'Callaghan/Ger Clancy (Escort) 1.07.30
7th (36) Damien McCarthy/Eamonn Hayes (Civic) 1.08.31.1
8th (9) Brian O'Mahony/John HIggins (Clio S1600) 1.09.04.6
9th (23) Kevin O'Donoghue/Joe O'Leary (Escort) 1.09.24.4
10th (14) Sean Flanagan/Liam Brennan (Impreza N) 1.09.56.3
This West Cork Rally is far from over and the sustained high speeds over the 2 days are now taking its toll on the cars. Denis Cronin’s Subaru has developed some sort of problem with the transmission/brakes. Bob Fowden/Jerry Hynes have retired from 5th place as their Subaru as blown the turbo. Sean Flanagan has slipped from 6th to 10th, his Impreza has had a differential problem. Tim McNulty sails on unperturbed at the front and set fastest times through stages 13 and 14. Having said that, Tim did say that the back end of his Subaru was moving about on that Hayes Cross stage and he can’t quite understand why. Denis Cronin arrived into service with the rear of his Impreza badly crumpled. Denis told us that the just wouldn’t stop and he had to spin it to scrub off speed, hence the body work damage. The way Denis is talking if they can’t find the root cause of this problem he will probably not continue in the rally.
John Dalton has fitted hard compound rear tyres to his Darrian and is now throwing the car about a bit. Great fun, but not the quickest. Daragh O’Riordan felt he had a very good run through stage 13, Ardfield, but that wasn’t reflected in his stage time where he was 20s down on McNulty. Brian O’Mahony set a very good time in his S1600 Clio and has jumped from 11th to 8th. Ed O’Callaghan told us that he caught the struggling Bob Fowden’s Subaru in Ardfield and he lost quite a few seconds as there was so much smoke from the Impreza’s blown turbo he was afraid of running into the car. Kevin O’Donoghue has now come into 9th in his Mk2 Escort although the Killarney man reported a little problem with the car’s clutch. John Buttimer is having a very smooth run and he is now unofficially in 12th place. Brian O’Keefe who is still 2nd in GpN is 13th. Fintan Canty 14th. Adrian Hetherington is behind O’Keefe having lost 4m earlier. Adrian is still setting good times and was 4s faster than O’Callaghan in SS13 but 6s down on 14. Welsh crew Tomas Davies/Paul Wakely were in the top 10 leaving service after stage 12 but there is no sign of the Escort after stage 14.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
