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| Monaghan Stages Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.3 - After SS3 - Sunday @ 12:34:04 |
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Rally News No.3 Service Regroup – Sunday 12.20pm
Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Three
1st (1)Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 27.31
2nd (4) Melvyn Evans/Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) 27.46
3rd (5) Gary McPhillips/Mark Tierney (Escort Mk2) 27.53
4th (3) Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Impreza WRC) 28.05
5th (9) Rodney Wilton /Conor McMahon (Escort) 28.40
6th (8) Manus Kelly/Donal Barrett (Escort Mk2) 28.53
7th (11) John Cairns/James Cairns (Impreza) 29.03
8th (18) Enda McNulty/Paul Sheridan (Lancer) 29.12
9th (24) John O'Donnell / Mac Walsh (Escort Mk2) 29.22
10th (19) Danny MacBride / Ambrose Given (Lancer N) 29.35
11th (46) Sam Moffett/Domhnall Lennon (Lancer N) 29.36
12th (34) Eugene Ferry/Derek Heena (Escort Mk2) 29.41
The big news here at service is the retirement of early rally leader Kevin Barrett in the Triton Impreza. Kevin felt the engine going off song and a quick call to Kenny McKinstry confirmed his worst fears that the head gasket had failed and the team had no choice but to retire leaving his Dunlop Championship campaign on the back foot. New rally leader Niall Maguire in the second Triton car has moved into a 15 second lead over Welsh visitor Melvyn Evans and Niall explained “I think we picked the right tyre, a cut slick, and sure enough it was slippy in places but not so bad”. Derek McGarrity on the other hand picked an intermediate and told us that it was definitely the wrong tyre and he feels that the next loop of stages should see an improvement from him. Melvyn Evans has had a further three stalls in his Impreza and feels that there may be a software problem rally than a driver problem and is confident his team can solve the issue in Service.
Gary McPhillips is putting on a pretty remarkable performance considering his Escort continues to suffer a bad misfire. Missing coming into Service was Daniel McKenna who was reportedly stopped changing a puncture and we can only assume that something more serious has befallen the local driver. Maurice Moffett was also running way down the field and he explained to us “we were near the end of stage two and suddenly there was just silence in the car – the intercom had packed in – so Jason tried his best with hand signals but we were coming into a five left and I just got distracted and put to car in the ditch” almost 20 minutes were lost and Maurice doesn’t see any reason for continuing. Rodney Wilton reckoned he lost ten to fifteen seconds when he caught the punctured Daniel McKenna in stage three while Damien Gallagher has a worry about falling oil pressure in his Escort.
Danny MacBride still leads GpN by just one second from young Sam Moffett both in Lancers. MacBride feels he took way too soft a tyre while further back the Bustard brothers are struggling to get their confidence back after their first stage spin. Adrian Hetherington completed the first three stages with no clutch and the reason he got stuck in stage one was because of this and not as we reported earlier being jammed between two banks. Sam Moffett had a small overshoot in stage two while John O’Connell who is really flying in his Mk2 reckoned he had a huge moment over a big jump in stage three. Lloyd Hutchinson is once again going well in the little mini on a total of 30.32 despite a big moment over some bumps and the driver feeling a bit off colour. More News Later … Michael & Zoë Patterson
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