NATIONAL RALLY LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 16
1st (14) Daniel McKenna/Andrew Grennan (Escort) 2.05.15.3
2nd (20) John Dalton/Gwynfor Jones (Darrian) 2.06.29.5
3rd (28) Brian Brogan/Damien McGettigan (Escort) 2.08.57.7
4th (16) Rodney Wilton/Conor McMahon (Escort) 2.09.50.6
5th (27) Conor Harvey/Gerard Callaghan (Civic) 2.09.59.2
6th (37) Eugene Ferry/Derek Heena (Escort) 2.10.07.7
Tim McNulty and his co driver Paul Kiely carry an overnight lead of 1m14s over Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy into Day 3 of this Topaz Donegal International Rally. Heavy rain drenched the final 2 stages of the day and when Tim brought his Subaru into the Milford service before overnight parc ferme in Letterkenny he said. “The rain made Knockalla very difficult, we were 30s slower than our first run over this afternoon. It would be easy to underestimate how tough a day it was. We were on a good pace and I’m looking forward to Sun day”. Alastair Fisher said. “I can do no more. At mid point in Knockalla I was 1s up and by the finish I was 10s down. I was flat out”. Alastair did record fastest time through Stage 15, Garrygort, but just by a fraction from McNulty. Daragh O’Riordan had a spin and wedged his Subaru on Knockalla damaging both bumpers getting the car back on course. Daragh also lost his confidence and was then caught by Kevin Barrett in the stage. Kevin said afterwards that he knew that bit of road and could possibly have made up a few seconds but he wasn’t complaining.
Garry Jennings felt he had picked the right tyres for Knockalla but a high speed spin and a crumpled wing to his Lancer dented his chances of an outstanding time. It was still 6s better than Phillip Morrow who decided to exercise caution and Alan Ring was quite a few more seconds back.
In the National Rally Daniel McKenna reported 2 spins and indeed one of them was a 5th gear job on a long corner which took the wind out of his sails a little. John Dalton was fastest National runner in the stage that must have been a fairly hairy run in the Darrian. Samuel Kelso was into the top 10 of the Nationals but we have no times in for him for stages 15 or 16. Martin McGee spun his Escort but got away with it. Frank Kelly took a chance on slick tyres but the gamble didn’t pay off and it cost him 20s in his race with Conor Harvey for class 12 honours. Noreen McShea has retired her Civic due to a broken gearbox. After stage 15 Scott McElhinney had a good lead in the Citroen Racing Trophy from Kieran Daly with Graham Colfer 3rd. Rory Byrne has his Modern Tyres Lancer up into 17th o/a and reports no problems today.
More news tomorrow: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Michael Patterson)
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