UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 5 Ballaghbeama
1st (6) Daragh O'Riordan/Tony McDaid (Impreza WRC) 42.31.4
2nd (1) Denis Cronin/Coleman Hurley (Impreza WRC) 43.43.3
3rd (8) Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Lancer N) 44.38.9
4th (23) Thomas Fitzmaurice/Fionn Foley (Lancer N) 44.46.4
5th (28) Mark Sheahan/Mark Kane (Citroen C2R2) 47.05.9
6th (12) Jer O'Donovan/Sean Hayde (Impreza N) 47.07.0
7th Eoin Doyle/Peter Brennan: 8th Kieran Daly/Darragh Mullen:
UNOFFICIAL NATIONAL L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 5
1st (9) Barry Meade/Alan Whyte (Escort) 44.50.1
2nd (15) Kevin O'Donoghue/Joe O'Leary (Escort) 45.18.9
3rd (10) Fergus O'Meara/Liam Brennan (Escort) 45.20.4
4th (16) Charlie Hickey/Johnny Hickey (Escort) 47.28.4
5th (26) Geoffrey Dolan/Conor Murphy (Sunbeam) 47.35.2
6th (27) David Guest/Liam Moynihan (BMW) 48.04.6
7th John Riordan/Donal Falvey: 8th Graham Colfer/Alan Dolan
When rally leader Daragh O’Riordan brought his Impreza in here to service he had extended his lead over Denis Cronin to 1m.11s. Daragh commented. “We’re going well but not flat out.” His co driver Tony McDaid said. “Not flat out but not messing about either”. (Messing was not actually the word Tony used!). Denis Cronin admitted to being a little bit cautious. Alan Ring got the engineers to change the ECU on his Lancer at last service and he reckons the car is a bit better but still not absolutely as it should be. Still, Ring has got ahead of Thomas Fitzmaurice for 3rd o/a and best GpN. For his part Thomas Fitzmaurice said. “I’m on a different playing field now and I reckon I was too cautious through the last 2 stages”. Jer O’Donovan is 4th of the big GpN cars but he forgot to switch the differentials of his Subaru on at the start of Molls Gap, and this cost him a fair bit of time.
Mark Sheahan continues to lead the Citroen Racing Trophy contenders and is 5th o/a and leads Class 2. Mark told us he took it handy enough on the 2nd visit to Molls Gap and then made a real push over the Ballaghbeama test. Kevin O’Connor lost valuable seconds on Ballaghbeama when the power steering on his Citroen developed an intermittent fault that cost him almost a minute in stage time. Kieran Daly caught up with O’Connor’s struggling C2R2 and probably lost a couple of seconds getting past on the narrow Ballaghbeama road.
John Doyle, who is manning the finish barrier on the Molls Gap stage, has told us that Brian O’Keefe’s Subaru is parked up just after the barrier with brake problems. Vincent O’Shea’s Escort Cosworth is also parked at the end of Molls Gap and we do not know if he can get going. Vincent was well placed in the Modified section. Fergus O’Meara is still having problems with his Escort’s paddle gearshift. Charlie Hickey changed to dry weather slick tyres for that loop and said it transformed the car. David Guest who has Liam Moynihan co driving in his BMW Compact is another to have suffered brake problems and is going to change the pads and discs here at service. Barry Meade lost no time getting in from the end of Ballaghbeama to service to have the clutch changed on his Escort.
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