RALLY NEWS NO.2 Ettelbruck..Saturday 12.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 3 - GOESDORF
1st (1) Rocco Theunissen/Erwin Mombaerts (Corolla WRC)21.30
2nd (4) Ian Greer/Dean Beckett (Corolla WRC) 21.31
3rd (6) Chris Van Woensel/Rik Snaet (Lancer) 21.36
4th (3) Hans Stacey/Daniel Sonck (Impreza WRC) 21.51
5th (7) Francois Duval/Patrick Grignet (Lancer N) 22.23
6th (9) Eamonn Boland/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 22.29

LATE NEWS - GREER LEADS BY 1sec.AFTER SS4.

There have been lots of dramas over the first 3 stages of this Luxembourg Rally, with car number 2, Roger Heck, crashing and blocking the third stage.Fancied Irishmen Derek McGarrity and Tim McNulty have encountered transmission troubles.
Out at the front of the rally No.1 seed, Rocco Theunissen, told us here at service "OK so far, but we found the third stage difficult, with ice." Ian Greer emerged from the Taranto de Pol Toyota and confirmed Rocco's story that stage 3 was very slippery.."Patchy, some places lots of grip, others very slidy, in 4th gear corners the car was getting very sideways. I'm a bit nervous as well, we had a stall in stage 2, I forgot to switch on the centre diff, the tyre pressures were sky high, the compounds were too hard and there was no heat in the tyres. In fact we just weren't at it, but it will be better for the next loop". When Derek McGarrity arrived in he was completely crestfallen, saying "The driveshaft went right at the start of the first stage, at the first hairpin the handbrake would not work, and I knew then we were in trouble. The car the was all over the place, You'd swear it was front wheel drive. I'm several minutes down already, and I don't know whether I will go on. The car needs many thousands of pounds worth of parts already".
Latest news is that Derek is continuing.

Running behind Derek on the road was Chris Van Woensel, he said "We need some modifications, the car is really gpN with some more bits added". Eamonn Boland was off the road briefly in stage 2 but otherwise all OK. Tim McNulty was running behind Boland but he stopped in stage 3 at the scene of Theunissen's accident. Tim was in trouble anyway having been off the road for 3 minutes in stage 2. He did however set a good time in stage 1 which is a good omen for later for the Pierse Construction driver.

Francois Duval, as expected, is setting scorching times in the gpN category,times were very few of the gpN drivers can match. Roy White in the similar Lancer was within 9s of Duval on the short first stage, but on stage 2 Roy found his FESP Lancer understeering, and dropped quite a few seconds to the gpN leader. Jim Harrison in the McKinstry Subaru broke a gearbox in stage 2 and was lucky to make service. Sean Keenan had a pretty good run for his first time out in the CSE Celica, but of course after Eamonn Boland, none of the cars got a time for SS3. Robert Woodside/Chris Patterson just outside top 10 and leading class in Puma.

More news to follow...BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON