Tim McNulty/Paul Kiely were fastest in their Subaru over the famous Knockalla stage with Daragh O’Riordan 2nd quickest and Alastair Fisher 3rd. Tim McNulty said. “We had a good run, didn’t go mad”. Alastair Fisher said. “I’m surprised the time was so good, just a couple of seconds down. It is a power stage. The only place where I lost a fraction was on the hairpin right off the main road, not that sweet. The car was very good on the tight stuff”. Daragh O’Riordan said. “We’re not going so bad now after the bad start yesterday. I like making it hard for myself”. Kevin Barrett reported a huge moment over the big jump near the start of the Garrygort stage immediately after service. David Bogie broke the transmission of his Metro 6R4 on that same jump and pulled out of the Super Rally at stage finish.
Longford’s Tommy Doyle is making the debut appearance of his beautiful new Renault Clio R3 this afternoon over the Garrygort and Knockalla stages. The yellow liveried car has been prepared by engineer Philip Case to the ultimate specification. The shell is straight off the Renault production line and the competition kit is from Alpine. The engine is by Cuprissol. Hopefully the test will go well for Tommy this afternoon and he is then off to Ypres Rally in Belgium tomorrow night.
Daniel McKenna continues to lead the National Rally and reported after Knockalla that his Escort’s engine had given a little blip on the 2nd part of the stage. Daniel flipped the fuel pumps and everything was OK to stage finish but he wants to have a real good check to see what caused the problem. John Dalton dropped 5s to Daniel over Knockalla. Eugene Ferry looked at the times after Knockalla and said. “I’m backing off, I can’t keep up with these lunatics in front. It is only thanks to the spectators in Carnhill who pulled out of the ditch that kept us in the rally”. Kevin & Gavin Gallagher lost time when they went off the road in 6th gear at the flying finish of stage 9 and then clipped a bank at a T junction in Knockalla. They were leading cl.11 but were under pressure from Damien McAuley/Sean McMacken in their Corolla. Noreen McShea and Kerri McCarter are still going strong in their Honda Civic. Noreen, who is married to Niall McShea, has on her side of the car a pink heart with a message from her children Erin & James reading “Give her the Welly Mummy”. Co-driver Kerri, who is the partner of Garry Jennings, has on her side of the car “Read Really Fast Mummy – from Jessica”.
On WRC Acropolis Rally Ogier now leads, Loeb is 11s back in 2nd and Petter Solberg/Chris Patterson is 13s back in 3rd. Hirvonen 4th.
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