Modifieds
1st Daniel McKenna 49.00.0, 2nd David Bogie 49.18.1, 3rd Rodney Wilton 49.41.9, 4th Gary McPhillips 49.49.0, 5th Manus Kelly 49.57.3, 6th Wesley Patterson 49.57.9
As ever, the Fanad Head stage has produced it’s fair share of dramas. Unfortunately, Craig Breen has had a fair big accident, his Fiesta S2000 crashing out on a sweepy, cresty bit of main road, a bit past where the late Bertie Fisher quite often had his accidents!! The main thing is that Craig and his co-driver Gareth Roberts are OK! A couple of the cars travelling behind Craig lost some time, particularly Darragh O’Riordan who stopped his Subaru at the radio point down at the shop to report the accident. Darragh is being shown as 7th O/A above but we think his time will be compensated which should move him up the leaderboard a few places.
Rally leader Gareth MacHale told us when he reached service, “I’m not taking big chances, but not backing off either. I used yesterday’s tyres this morning and maybe that was a mistake, they lost their grip towards the end of Fanad”. Tim McNulty, who was 0.1s faster than Gareth through Fanad commented, “We drove steady enough, not going crazy.” Seamus Leonard still has that misfire in his Subaru. Aaron MacHale said he was having a good run but then when he came across Breen’s accident, it knocked his composure more than a little.
Alastair Fisher leads GpN and reports no problems with his Lancer. Damien Tourish is 2nd in GpN and still has no 3rd gear in his Mitsubishi. Damien hopes there will be enough time at next service to change the box. Tommy Doyle in his Renault Clio has had a great run over this mornings stages to move into 10th O/A and first in Cl4. Robert Barrable has slipped to 11th but still leads the Citroen Racing Trophy contenders. When Robert emerged from his C2R2 Max here at service he told us that he had been a bit overly cautious at the start of the opening stage today. Mark Sheehan was fastest Citroen through that SS7.
Young Toni Kelly in the Rite Price Cars backed Civic set a top 10 time through SS7 so Toni is inside the top 20 and is 2nd in cl4 behind Tommy Doyle.
In the national section, David Bogie has been going really well this morning and David told us, “We are pushing on now, more committed. The oil pressure light in the Metro is flashing, especially under breaking which took a bit of my concentration away. But the stages are class, loads of people and lots of Scottish flags!” Daniel McKenna continues to lead the National section but Bogie is just 18s behind the flying Monaghan man. Rodney Wilton is only 23s shy of Bogie so it is all still to play for. Phil Collins is making no headway against the Escorts in front and Phil admitted that a few niggly problems have been holding him back and like many of the other drivers, Craig Breen’s accident shook him.
More news later from Brian and Michael Patterson plus Ciara (Liz Jnr for the weekend)
