Modifieds
1st David Bogie 1:06:27.0, 2nd Daniel McKenna 1:06:32.5, 3rd Rodney Wilton 1:07:04.6, 4th Gary McPhillips 1:07:13.2, 5th Manus Kelly 1:07:17.1, 6th Wesley Patterson 1:07:20.0
Late News. Due to the incident on Stage 10 Knockalla the Donegal Motor Club has cancelled the final stage for the day. All crews have been instructed to return to Parc Ferme. The Donegal Motor Club will issue a statement with regard to the incident in due course and we will post this as soon as it is available.
Tim McNulty scored his fourth fastest time of the day over SS10 Fanad Head but in reality, it’s just a second here and half a second there off Gareth MacHale. The gap between the leader MacHale and second placed Tim seems to stick stubbornly around the one minute mark. When the cars reached service, Gareth was quickly on to the engineers computer studying all the data so his co-driver Brian Murphy took time out to tell us, “Tim’s going hard, so are we an d we’re a long way ahead of the rest. Gareth is driving within himself and I suppose if we didn’t have that one minute buffer, we would up the game.” Over in the McNulty camp, engineer Derek McGeehan was telling Tim about minor tweeks he was making such as adjusting the pivot in the rear roll bar to make the Subaru even more like a roller skate, Tim said, “We’re certainly going hard, we were 13s faster over Fanad than last years quickest time.”
Third placed Aaron MacHale reported, “It’s all very close, we’re going good enough but I know that I didn’t go as well on the back part of Fanad as I should have.” Seamus Leonard in fourth is still complaining of his misfiring engine and as Kenny McKinstry studied the computer he said, “It’s a mystery! At the last service it was misfiring on the back left hand plug, we changed that and now it’s the front right hand plug off the bank. The computer is showing that Seamus lost 15s in that one stage.”
Alastair Fisher continues to lead GpN, his co-driver Rory Kennedy reports, “We’re going as hard as we can. In this warm weather, the GpN car can’t compete with e world rally car.” Damien Tourish continues to hold second in GpN and was 4s faster than Fisher over Fanad so has decided not to change his Lancer’s gearbox in case the job takes longer than expected and he would incur road penalties. Jonny Greer was second in GpN but has dropped nearly 8 minutes. Jonny’s Lancer careered up a bank just past the place where Craig Breen crashed earlier . In the drama, two tyres got punctured and then the car fell off the jack.
Tommy Doyle in the Clio tried a 30 compound tyre for Fanad, one normally associated with Spanish rallies and it was against the advice of his engineer, Philip Case, as well as his co-driver Liam. However, Tommy went ahead and said it was, “suicidal”. He got away with it and indeed was 2s faster than Robert Barrable who continues to lead the Citroen Racing Trophy contenders. Mark Donnelly is second in the Citroens and Shane Buckley third.
In the modified section, David Bogie recorded a stunning time over Fanad, almost 30s faster than Daniel McKenna whose Escort suffered a puncture. The time was still 10s up on Rodney Wilton. David said here at service, “The oil light in the 6R4 is still flashing but it is only following a high speed section into a slow junction. We were pushing very hard over Fanad and it was great. So many Scottish flags, helicopters flying low, very exciting!” No doubt, Daniel McKenna will be trying hard to get the National lead back over the next stage, the fearsome Knockalla. A bit of good news which will have no doubt cheered Daniel is that he got word last night that he has passed some major exams. Daniel already has a degree in mechanical engineering and he now has an extra degree in energy and sustainability management!
Our Michael is up at the end of Knockalla stage and has phoned to say there is an emergency control being set up to give the drivers an amended road book as the Garrygort stage will not now run. Because of a bereavement on the stage, Garrygort was going to be shortened anyway
More news later from Brian and Michael Patterson plus Ciara (Liz Jnr)
