|
|
| |
| Ulster Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.8 - RALLYNEWS No.8 - Saturday @ 11:01:28 |
| |
|
RALLY NEWS NO.8 Antrim/Friday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 9 TARDREE
WRC
1st (W2) Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Impreza WRC) 1.06.29.0
2nd (W1) Gareth MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.06.32.8
3rd (W4) Aaron MacHale/Eugene O'Donnell (Focus WRC) 1.09.16.3
4th (W5) Arjen de Koning/Hein Verschuuren (Lancer WRC) 1.15.09.9
RALLYNI
1st (4) Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts (Fiesta S2000) 1.07.39.8
2nd (2) Keith Cronin/Barry McNulty (Impreza N) 1.08.01.5
3rd (1) Gwyndaf Evans/Phil Pugh (Lancer N) 1.08.11.7
4th (3) Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 1.09.04.7
5th (9) Adam Gould/Craig Drew (Impreza N) 1.09.35.4
6th (7) Bryan Bouffier/Xavier Panseri (Citroen DS3 R3) 1.10.08.2
7th (28) Daniel McKenna/Andrew Grennan (Lancer N) 1.10.30.0
8th (5) Jonny Greer/Dai Roberts (Lancer N) 1.10.36.3
9th (8) Jason Pritchard/Robbie Durant (Impreza N) 1.11.56.1
10th (24) Marty McCormack/David Moynihan (Citroen C2R2 Max) 1.11.58.2
In the WRC part of the rally Gareth MacHale was fastest through Tardree but by just 0.1 of a second for McGarrity. In RallyNI Craig Breen reinforced his lead by being fastest, just over 3 seconds up on Gwyndaf Evans with Keith Cronin further 0.7 seconds back. It’s all very tight stuff.
Gareth MacHale said at stage finish: “We’ve stiffened the suspension by a couple of klicks but even so a couple of the jumps were really big.” McGarrity reported “There’s nothing in this. We made one tiny mistake at a junctions which maybe cost a couple of seconds. It’s so close that it all counts.” Aaron MacHale seems to be getting into his stride and his time seems to be improving but still slightly of the pace of his brother Gareth and McGarrity.
Craig Breen fairly hurled his Fiesta S2000 down the Tardree stage and said: “I’m having to push very hard” The young Waterford man went on to say that by its more twisty nature the Tardree suited his car better and he was only on the limiter once or twice. Gwyndaf Evans reported all more or less well and Keith Cronin talked of his Subaru understeering on the very high speed corners and that he was pushing as hard as he could. Alistair Fisher felt he was being a bit untidy in the junctions but then later Jonny Greer said something similar but he reckoned it was because of gravel on the junctions. When Alistairs’ Lancer left the control there seemed to be a little water coming from the engine bay. Adam Gould felt that he had misjudged some of the distances in his notes, made them to long and the corners were coming up faster than he expected.
Bryan Bouffier in his new Citroen DS3R3 said that because the stages are so specialised they are always having to adjust the suspension but that everything was good. Marty McCormack has got another power steering problem with his Citroen C2R2 Max but it looks now that its is the pump that is failed, possible as a result of running with no fluid. There are no real chicanes in stage 10 Langford Lodge so Marty shouldn’t loose much time before service. Jason Pritchard had a decent time through stage 9 and reported everything nice and tidy. Mark Donnelly has clipped the rear corner of his Lancer on a fast 4 right and the car got away from him. Neil McCance has reportedly put his Lancer of the road in stage 9 which wont have done his Irish Mitsubishi Evo Challenge chances much good. Particularly as his closest rival Sam Moffett has withdrawn his Lancer following all his power steering problems last night. Rory Byrne had a camshaft sensor problem with his Lancer and has dropped a lot of time, but is still going.
Just outside the top ten now Mark Donnelly in his Lancer is 11th, Daniel Sigurdarson 12th, Alan Carmichael is 13th following a good time through Tardree, Elfyn Evans is 14th and Mark Donnelly in his Citroen C2R2 Max is 15th. Andrew Bushe has improved slightly this morning following his suspension changes and is 16th.
In Rally Germany on the 48 kilometre Arena Panzerplatte stage Loeb was fastest in a time of 27.55.8 which is pretty remarkable. Petter Solberg was second fastest 8.2 seconds in arrears. In overall terms Loeb still leads from Sordo with Ogier third and Solberg has climbed to 7th despite his 2 punctures.
More news later: BRIAN PATTERSON & MICHAEL PATTERSON & THE GIRLS & THANKS TO THE GREAT GREG MCCORMACK CREW FOR ALL THE SUSTENANCE AND SUGGESTION! www.rallynews.net
*For SMS results text RALLY ITC to 53030 (Irl) or RALLY ITC to 60066 (UK). Text STOP to switch off. Cost 30c/25p. Provided by stagetimes.com
|
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
|
