Rally News No.4 Service Macroom Saturday 4.00pm

Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Six

1^st (5) Tim McNulty/Eugene O’Donnell (Subaru WRC) 57.39

2^nd (3) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O’Gorman (Impreza WRC) 58.16

3^rd (2) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 58.37

4^th (6) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 59.13

5^th (9) Ollie O’Donovan/David Moynihan (Subaru WRC) 1.00.13

6^th (8) Denis Cronin/Helen Sullivan (Celica) 1.00.42

7^th (10) Tony Davies/Jakes Kelly (Impreza WRC) 1.01.17

8^th (11) Johnny O’Sullivan/Pat Cashman (Escort WRC) 1.01.51

9^th (21) James O’Sullivan/Brian Duggan ( Lancer N) 1.02.22

10^th (24) Paddy White/Aidan Moran (Impreza WRC) 1.02.56

((12) Philip Collins/Diarmuid Falvey (Escort Mk2 M) 1.01.28*

* Modified Section Of Rally

Eugene Donnelly arrived into service here in Macroom with the Envirocare backed Corolla looking very second hand. Eugene was pushing hard through stage five when he lost the rear of the car and spun backwards into a bank, co driver Paul Kiely saying "we were having a real cut, and it was going really well but we just overcooked it". The significance of this is that Tim McNulty moves back into the lead and if our calculations are correct holds a 37 second advantage over Derek McGarrity, who in turn is 21 seconds ahead of Eugene Donnelly. Derek McGarrity lost a bit of time when he caught Donnelly, but once again Derek isn’t entirely happy with his Pirelli tyre choice, and reckons he should have maybe gone for an intermediate over those last two stages. Rally leader Tim McNulty is reporting no problems in his Pierse Impreza and is over the moon to be back into the lead of the rally.

It is all happening in GpN with the production category leader Colm Murphy reportedly off the road in stage five. Willie Fanin was only three seconds behind going into the stage, but he picked up a puncture and dropped almost two minutes, leaving James O’Sullivan in the GpN lead in his ill handling Lancer. Paddy White was yellow flagged for the Colm Murphy incident, but when he got there the car was well off the road with the okay boards showing.

Phil Collins is out on his own in the modified rally but was lucky to get through stage six when he spun his Escort backwards into the bridge. The reason for Barry Coleman’s retirement was engine failure, and the McKinstry mechanics already have the engine out and semi stripped in readiness for Catalunia. Mark Higgins leads the Trackrod, with McHale still in sixth.

More News Later ….. Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd