NATIONAL RALLY LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 12
1st (14) Daniel McKenna/Andrew Grennan (Escort) 1.27.52.0
2nd (20) John Dalton/Gwynfor Jones (Darrian) 1.28.49.6
3rd (28) Brian Brogan/Damien McGettigan (Escort) 1.30.21.1
4th (37) Eugene Ferry/Derek Heena (Escort) 1.30.54.0
5th (27) Conor Harvey/Gerard Callaghan (Civic) 1.31.05.5
6th (16) Rodney Wilton/Conor McMahon (Escort) 1.31.05.7
7th Samuel Kelso 8th Martin McGee 9th Adrian Hetherington 10th Frank Kelly
Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy were fastest through stage 12 by less than a second from Tim McNulty/Paul Kiely in their Subaru. However, Alastair is having to drive Modern Tyres backed Fiesta S2000 on the door handles to try and match McNulty who now has well over a minute of a lead. Tim told us at service. “All is grand, the car is fantastic. We pushed hard on the first stage after service the last time, Grovehall, but now we’re trying to be a bit clever and conserve everything.” Derek McGarrity started this 2nd day of this Topaz Donegal Rally in 3rd place but was quickly overhauled by Daragh O’Riordan. Derek’s Impreza had a new turbo fitted at service after stage 9 but then the gearbox lost 5th cog in SS10 and the car then ground to a halt in SS12. He eventually managed to get the Impreza mobile and made it to service, but his rally is over. Possibly his Tarmac Championship hopes as well.
Kevin Barrett in 4th place continues to drive a steady rally while Phillip Morrow in 5th is setting some really good times to be best of the conventional machines. Seamus Heron has turned up the wick in his Corolla WRC and now rounds off the top 6.
In the Citroen Racing Trophy Scott McElhinney now has well over a minute of an advantage over 2nd placed Kieran Daly with Graham Colfer 3rd. McElhinney took it slightly easier on the last loop of stages as he had a wheel stud broken on his C2R2 Max. Joe McGonigle was 2nd in the Citroens but he has reportedly bumped his Citroen against a chicane and was struggling through S12. Joe Shrimpton put his Citroen off in SS9 when the car was unsettled after a jump and slithered into a ditch with no spectators to help extricate the car.
In the National Rally Manus Kelly and Damien Gallagher who were well up the leaderboard, have both stopped in SS12. John Dalton is pushing hard in the Darrian and hopes to keep the pressure on Daniel McKenna. Daniel’s co driver Andrew Grennan said. “We’re trying to be user friendly to our Escort. Not driving it out of our skins!”
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Michael Patterson: Daphne Millar & Mossie and Dougie Hughes): *For SMS results text RALLY ITC to 53030 (Irl) or RALLY ITC to 60066 (UK). Cost 30c/25p. Text STOP to switch off. Provided by stagetimes.com
