RALLY NEWS NO.2 End of Stage 1/Saturday 10.30
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 1 Cobblers Cross
1st (1) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (C4 WRC) 9.56.1
2nd (3) Dani Sordo/Mark Marti (Xsara WRC) 10.08.4
3rd (2) Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Focus WRC) 10.20.0
4th (7) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 10.26.7
5th (5) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 10.28.1
6th (9) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 10.50.3
7th (4) Gareth MacHale/Craig Parry (Focus WRC) 10.51.4
8th (8) Tim McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 10.53.4
9th (12) Aaron MacHale/Killian Duffy (Focus WRC) 10.58.9
10th (14) Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Focus WRC) 11.20.0
The above times are from the first cars only: Patrick Elliott crashed on that opening Cobblers Cross stage and his Subaru blocked the road so no one got through after that. Patrick and co driver Paul Goodman are reportedly OK.
There was bright sunshine in the beautiful countryside outside Crookstown for that first stage although some overnight rain had left damp patches under the trees and at one of the muddy farmyards. That did not deter World Champion Sebastien Loeb who set a scorching pace through the 18.8kn stage. When his Citroen came down to the finish co-driver Daniel Elena commented. “All OK, a little bumpy, slippy”. Behind Loeb there was a fair bit of confusion as the cars arrived, but in overall terms none of the drivers had any big problems. Most of the home drivers saying that they were just trying to get themselves settled and not do anything dramatic.
Eugene Donnelly was best of the “non works” drivers, Eugene trying a different tyre and a slightly different set up on his Subaru and he seemed to be on top form, a lot better mood than on the recent Ulster Rally.
Mark Higgins was also trying a few tweaks on his Subaru and was less than 2s down on Eugene so we have the promise of a good race between these two.
Eamonn Boland spoke of a bad noise or vibration on his Subaru. While Roger Duckworth, running at No.11 was reportedly going pretty slowly through the mid point of the stage and we did not see him at stage finish.
More news after stage 2.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallkynews.net
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