The top officials of the rally are appealing to the large crowds of spectators to stand well back from the stages and please think of safety. As can be seen above Tim McNulty was fastest through the opening stage. Last year’s winner Tim was sweating hard at stage finish and said the stages was very wet and slippery in places. Gareth MacHale seemed fairly subdued at stage finish and echoed McNulty’s words about how slippery it was. When Gareth’s Focus pulled away from the finish we noticed a large pool of oil where the car had been idling for a minute. Hopefully that is not a portent of bad news. Daragh O’Riordan was surprised that his time was so good as he was being relatively cautious.
Alastair Fisher said that he was a bit slow at the start of the stage, just being cautious. Craig Breen was on a full wet weather tyre and we thought his time might have been a little bit better. Eoin Doyle was slowed, his Subaru was filling up with oil smoke. Paul Bird also lost time, his Focus WRC giving anti lag troubles. Brian O’Mahony caught Mark Nangle in the stage and both drivers lost a few seconds as Mark pulled over to let the flying Renault through. John Hickey’s Escort emerged from the stage with a punctured front right tyre.
In the National Rally Phil Collins was almost 10s faster than Barry Meade with Vincent O’Shea 3rd.
Main non starters this morning were Jonny Greer and Ger O’Donovan. Alan Ring’s Lancer left parc ferme but went on fire as the anti lag was switched on, the exhaust went red hot and melted the tank. Ken Lyons’ Escort seemed to stop on the way to service, possibly a mechanical problem. 100 cars started the main rally.
NEWS JUST COMING IN – Gareth MacHale retired with engin problems.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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