When Alastair Fisher arrived in here to service as the leader of this Circuit of Ireland it made it look almost as if it was no problem to be ahead of the World Rally Cars. Alastair said. “I just kept it smooth, braking in the right places and getting on the power early”. Second placed Derek McGarrity related. “Lucky to be here, smell inside that Subaru, the fumes would knock you down.” It transpired that a fuel feed return pipe came adrift inside the car and there was fuel all over the floor of the Impreza. It looked the simplest thing to fix and no doubt the car will be pristine before it leaves for the next 3 stages. Derek was only half joking when he said. “What annoys me most is there must be thirty quids of juice swilling about on the floor of that car!” Daragh O’Riordan has adjusted the differentials of his Subaru and he is feeling a lot happier now. His co driver Tony McDaid said. “The whole idea is to get experience and the plan is to drive in the middle of the road, avoid the punctures, and let the rest of the boys do what they want”.
Garry Jennings had a decent run through stage 6 despite his Lancer suffering a broken drive shaft. Tim McNulty in 5th had an overshoot in stage 6 to compound the misery of his stage 5 puncture. When Gareth MacHale’s co driver Brian Murphy was asked was there any solution to this ongoing cutting out problem with his Focus WRC, he raised his eyes skywards and said. “Maybe if we sent it up to Daisy Hill Hospital for half an hour for a bit of a transplant that would do it!” Richard Cathcart in 7th had no repeat of his stage 5 brake problems in stage 6. Richard let the brakes cool off, gave the middle pedal a couple of pumps and off he went again at unabated speed despite a broken shock absorber. John McGlaughlin lost a little bit of ground through the last couple of stages as his Lancer misfire started to raise its ugly head again. John said. “Its one step forward and one step back with the confidence”.
Following all the trouble with his Focus suspension Aaron MacHale said after stage 6. “The car is a lot better. The 2nd last stage was fine but I overshot a junction on the last one. Its hard to get your head around it after all the problems but we will get it sorted out”. In the Citroen C2R2 Max competition Marty McCormack continues to set the pace and has moved into the top 10. Robert Barrable is holding on to 2nd in the Citroens and Mark Donnelly is 3rd with Shane Buckley now getting his act together and putting the pressure on Donnelly. Andrew Bushe in his Citroen leads class A6 and is delighted with the handling of the S1600 machine. Tommy Doyle leads cl.A7 in his Clio. Tommy said he made a slow start to the rally and also had a few brake problems but everything is now going well. Current Evo Challenge Champion Neil McCance is down in 17th place and trying to pick himself up after his stage 5 puncture.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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