| RALLY NEWS NO.3 Service/Macroom/Saturday 11.30
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2 Lissarda
1st (1) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (C4 WRC) 17.13.0
2nd (3) Dani Sordo/Mark Marti (Xsara WRC) 17.36.0
3rd (5) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 17.58.2
4th (7) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 18.04.1
5th (9) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 18.44.2
6th (8) Tim McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 18.45.0
7th (4) Gareth MacHale/Craig Parry (Focus WRC) 18.45.3
8th (12) Aaron MacHale/Killian Duffy (Focus WRC) 18.53.5
9th (17) Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Focus WRC) 19.04.4
10th (14) Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Focus WRC) 19.07.7
Sebastien Loeb was fastest on stage 2, with his team mate Dani Sordo 2nd fastest but Mikko Hirvonen in the Ford Focus WRC dropped well over 4 minutes when he stopped on that 2nd stage to change a punctured tyre. Mark Higgins moved ahead of Eugene Donnelly while Colm Murphy was fastest of the group N runners.
When the lead cars arrived into the Macroom service area Loeb reported all well, maybe not as good a run on the 2nd stage as the 1st but everything was OK. Dani Sordo also reported a good clean run but he was over 9s slower than his team mate which is a fair indication of just how fast Loeb is going. He is in another rally really. Gareth MacHale dropped a few seconds when he half spun his Focus at a square left junction but otherwise was OK. Mark Higgins said he made a really careful start which cost him some time, that stage 2 went OK but could have been better. Eugene Donnelly, 7.4s down on Higgins on that 2nd stage said. “It was a wee spin, no dramas, just an overshoot at a junction”. Tim McNulty found the roads pretty slippy through the first stages and he is going to change the set up on his Pierse backed Impreza WRC. We mentioned on the last Rally News that Eamonn Boland had a noise or a vibration in his Subaru. His engineer Dom Buckley has diagnosed that the anti lag valve is partially stuck open and should be easily fixed.
Aaron MacHale was another to report the stages very slippy and said. “It is taking me a while to get my confidence up”. Michael Barrable was another not fully in the groove Michael saying. “I’m not really at it, we had a spin at a downhill hairpin left”. Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield were having some gear change difficulties in their Impreza which has cost them some time. We got a report that Roger was going slowly through stage 1. This wasn’t such a big deal as it transpires that the cars were not running in their original order as their stage start time was issued on their arrival order at the early service. Ray Breen also lost a few seconds in stage 2 his Focus brake pedal going to the floor. Denis Cronin admitted that once again he is very slow at settling in, Denis of course with one eye on the 023 Tiles Southern 4 Championship points.
Colm Murphy found the conditions slippy but was still fastest group N. Owen Murphy was 2nd fastest group N. Alan Ring reckoned he didn’t make quite the right tyre choice for his Subaru. Garry Jennings reported that his Lancer wasn’t turning in well. James Foley was well down the group N times, James reporting some problem with his Lancer’s electronics. Brian O’Mahony found the stage very slippy and stalled his Clio and then had a near off, all combining to lose the young Cork man some time. Kevin Kelleher said of his newly acquired Lancer “There is much more to come”. Kevin was a few seconds down on fastest GpN but not too far away.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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