On stage 12, Cornoonagh Hill, Derek McGarrity set fastest time to move into the lead while Alastair Fisher’s Lancer suffered a puncture but he managed to just hold on to 2nd place. The writing was on the wall this morning with Alastair struggling to maintain his lead, the dry roads seeming to help the more powerful world rally cars. Alastair said. “It was about 3 miles from the end of the stage on a long slow corner, the car pushed the nose and caught a clump of rocks. I wasn’t even trying to push, but sometimes the less you push the less you concentrate. I was trying to conserve the car”. Derek McGarrity said. “We had a good run on that last stage although earlier I think I damaged a tyre on some of Alastair’s debris.” When asked if he felt under pressure now that he is leading with 3 stages to go Derek, as quick as a flash replied. “No pressure, I’ve won it 3 times”.
Gareth MacHale set a scorching pace over the 2 opening stages this morning but when he came into service he said. “I’m driving my heart out. It is so frustrating. The car stopped a couple of times on the opening 2 stages but it stopped 5 times on that last stage”. Tim McNulty told us. “I’m going alright although I could have done with a harder compound tyre maybe. Its still very tricky out there, no forgiveness in the roads at all.” Richard Cathcart in 5th o/a is having a real struggle with the rear of his Impreza bouncing about at the back end on its emergency replacement forest suspension. Aaron MacHale reckoned he was a wee bit too cautious through stage 12, but otherwise had a good run today. Daragh O’Riordan slipped from 6th to 7th on stage 11 when his Impreza ran wide on a tight right hander with gravel and slipped into a ditch. Although the car was on its side there is no real body work damage.
Marty McCormack blotted his copybook ever so slightly when on a tight 4 left 4 right kink he went for the hand brake and his C2R2 Max slid up a little lane. Marty was lucky to lose little time and he has kept a very solid lead in the Citroen Racing Trophy with Mark Donnelly 2nd of the Citroens and in a little envelope on his own. Current Irish Citroen Champion Adrian McElhinney is 3rd in the category today and 16th o/a. John McGlaughlin has lost a lot of time over the last 2 stages, his Evo over boosting and way down on power allied to an awry rear left wheel. Neil McCance is the highest placed Lancer at the moment but his charge also took a dent when he incurred a puncture in stage 12. The Evo Challenge is decided on today’s performance and Brendan Cumiskey and Sam Moffett are in contention for the honours. Sam going a lot better today now that his car is on something like full song. Alan Ring had a huge sideways moment, lock to lock, and co driver Adrian Deasy gave him a helping hand with a touch of the hand brake!
NATIONAL RALLY: Kenny McKinstry now has a 7m lead over his daughter Emma in 2nd, both in Impreza WRCs. John Waring in his Escort is 3rd. Raymond Conlon (Corolla) 4th. David Armstrong (Escort G3) 5th and Mervyn Wedlock 6th. Trevor Ferguson in his Impreza leads GpN and is 7th o/a.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ & MICHAEL PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
*For SMS results text RALLY ITC to 53030 (Irl) or RALLY ITC to 60066 (UK): Text STOP to switch off. Cost 30c/25p. Provided by stagetimes.com
