RALLY NEWS NO.3
Ettelbruck..Saturday 3pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 - GOESDORF 2
1st (4) Ian Greer/Dean Beckett (Corolla WRC) 42.19
2nd (1) Rocco Theunissen/Erwin Mombaerts (Corolla WRC)42.26
3rd (3) Hans Stacey/Daniel Sonck (Impreza WRC) 43.00
4th (6) Chris Van Woensel/Rik Snaet (Lancer) 43.13
5th (9) Eamonn Boland/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 44.04
6th (7) Francois Duval/Patrick Grignet (Lancer N) 44.19
7th (31) Peter & Piet Bijvelds (Lancer N) 44.30
8th (5) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC)44.50

Through stages 4, 5 and 6 Ian Greer really had the Taranto de Pol Corolla WRCas near flat out as makes no difference, and set fastest time on every stage.Ian was 2/3 seconds faster than his closest rival Theunissen on each of the stages. His co driver Dean Beckett commented here at service "When you see the spectators taking one step back you know you are going hard". Greer said "We went too fast into a turn square right in stage 5 and overcooked it, lost a few seconds, otherwise it went well". Theunissen said "Everything is OK,
roads are drying now, very fast".

Not so happy was Tipperary man Roy White - he pushed the FESP Lancer into the regroup control and announced that he was out of the rally. The Mitsubishi's clutch release bearing had let go, exactly the same problem as happened on the Manx last year. Roy and co-driver Des Cooney were really disappointed,having got the hammer down through stages 4,5 and 6, and were starting to nibble at Duval's times. As for Duval - he told us that his Lancer is now handling very well, after some understeer trouble on the first few stages.
Derek McGarrity is now comfortable in 8th place, having lost several minutes over the first 2 stages with the broken rear drive shaft. Derek still feels however that the car is not quite right. He had a couple of spins, possibly also down to a slightly soft compound tyre. The Glengormley man described one such incident as "there's a 5 left over a jump into a couple of very fast lefts and rights, and then I nicked it into 4th for a tighter one, and it just swapped ends!"
Other stories involving Irish drivers include..Tim McNulty just a little
disgruntled, still settling into the car, can't get his braking distances
just right, but he knows it is going to take time. Patrick Elliott had a
good clean run that time, Patrick just outside the top 20. No times as yet for Sean Keenan, but he was running with the boost turned up and setting quite good times. English driver Ben Briant is running in approx. 16th place, just a couple of seconds behind Alistair Ginley. Alistair reporting his tyres going off slightly in stage 6. Robert Woodside was still just outside the top 20 and leading his class in the Ford Puma, 2nd in F2. Co driver Chris Patterson said they had a bit of acrobatics at one junction when Robert was caught out in neutral with the sequential shift, dropping 20s.

LATEST NEWS..Kenny McKinstry's team is packing up and heading out to the stages to find Jim Harrison, who has reportedly put Kenny's gold coloured Impreza WRC into the ditch on the inside of a stage 6 hairpin right.

More news to follow..BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON