Stage 13 definitely was an unlucky stage for Tim McNulty as his Subaru is well off the road at a T-junction after a 200 yards downhill straight. Tim is reportedly standing out at the junction with the OK board up which would indicate that both he and co driver Paul Kiely are unhurt. Gareth MacHale was fastest through the stage by 6s from Derek McGarrity with Richard Cathcart being shown as just a second behind McGarrity and Alastair Fisher well back, 23s down on Cathcart and slower than both Daragh O’Riordan and Aaron MacHale. However, Alastair’s co driver Marshall Clarke was not satisfied that he had the correct stage time and was putting in a query. Alastair said everything was OK at stage finish but his time was even slower than his first run through the stage where he had been off the road. Derek McGarrity said he had a good run and did not appear too concerned about Gareth MacHale being 6s faster. Derek commented. “It’s all in hand”. Gareth said. “The car only stopped twice in the stage”.
Richard Cathcart continues to do a very good job in his GpN Impreza but he is worried now about the fuel pump getting extremely noisy. Marty McCormack has lost his lead in the Citroen Racing Trophy having crashed his C2R2 Max off the road on the same 6 right into square left as Fisher had the big moment on this morning. Marty managed to get the car out of the stage but a back wheel has been sheared off the studs and he is going to have to do a bit of spanner work himself to keep the car going. He lost approximately 5m in the incident. Mark Donnelly now leads the Citroen C2R2 charge but he emerged from that stage 13 with the hazard lights going and reported low oil pressure. This could leave Adrian McElhinney in a very strong position in the Citroens. Geoff McMahon was into the top 15 at last service but the rear brakes of his Lancer are seizing on.
Neil McCance is the highest placed Evo Challenge contender today while Brendan Cumiskey has made inroads into Neil’s stage times and could be in line for top points on this double header. John McGlaughlin is down in 14th o/a following early turbo problems with his Lancer. Stephen Wright is 16th and won the Fiesta category yesterday. Andrew Bushe is 18th in his Citroen following his delays last night and is having a good run today as he tests different suspension set ups. Cahir man Andrew Fanning has had a decent run in his Puma and is 19th o/a just ahead of Modern Tyres man Rory Byrne who is running in Super Rally today.
NATIONAL RALLY: After stage 12 Kenny McKinstry in his Impreza WRC had a 7m33s lead over John Waring in his Escort. Emma McKinstry has slipped to 3rd although we did not if she was having any particular problem. Raymond Conlon is 4th in his Corolla. David Armstrong (Escort G3) is 5th and Mervyn Wedlock (Escort) 6th. Trevor Ferguson was 7th in his Impreza and leading GpN.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ & MICHAEL PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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