| RALLY NEWS NO.4 Macroom/Service/Saturday 2pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4 Lissarda
1st (1) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (C4 WRC) 33.57.0
2nd (3) Dani Sordo/Mark Marti (Xsara WRC) 34.39.3
3rd (7) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 35.53.7
4th (5) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 35.54.4
5th (4) Gareth MacHale/Craig Parry (Focus WRC) 36.23.5
6TH (8) Tim McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 36.40.6
7TH (12) Aaron MacHale/Killian Duffy (Focus WRC) 37.16.8
8TH (9) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 37.33.3
9TH (14) Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Focus WRC) 37.54.1
10TH (17) Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Focus WRC) 37.57.1
Sebastien Loeb in his Citroen C4 was fastest again through stages 3 and 4. Owen Murphy has provisionally moved ahead in group N. Roger Duckworth/Mark Broomfield, seeded at 11 in their Subaru, have crashed out of the rally. Denis Biggerstaff’s Subaru has gearbox trouble and was fortunate to reach service. Garry Jennings is stuck at the start of stage 4 his Lancer stricken with a broken drive shaft and Garry is reportedly working like mad to try and get the car going.
When Loeb’s Citroen reached service co driver Daniel Elena said. “It is going well, we are trying other settings also”. His team mate Daniel Sordo is not trying so much new stuff with the older model Citroen, the Xsara, Dani concentrating on building up his knowledge of Irish asphalt rallying. Mikko Hirvonen is on a total now of 39.33.2, following his earlier puncture. Hirvonen said that he doesn’t know what caused the puncture, “It just happened”. His co driver Jarmo also said “We change everything in the suspension at every service!” Mikko’s times are a couple of seconds per stage down on Sordo and a few seconds per stage faster than Donnelly & Higgins.
In the battle between Mark Higgins and Eugene Donnelly for Global Group Tarmac Championship supremacy Mark Higgins turned in a great time on stage 3 to move 21s ahead of Eugene but then lost it all in stage3 4 when his Subaru suffered a puncture. Eugene had his problems as well saying that he hadn’t bedded in new brake pads properly and they jammed on at the start of stage 3 and didn’t release until near the stage finish which didn’t help his confidence one bit. Gareth MacHale has had a decent run over the last few stages. Tim McNulty said. “We had a better set up over those couple of stages, I was a bit happier, finding my feet, the roads are drying but still greasy”.
Eamonn Boland lost a few valuable seconds with intercom problems. Aaron MacHale had a good run, no trouble and Michael Barrable has settled down well also. Ray Breen has a slight misfire coming into his Focus and also lost some time when he stopped to check that Roger Duckworth was OK following his accident. Hugh Martin Doherty put his Subaru in the ditch briefly and he lost a few seconds. Hugh Martin’s total is 38.19.5 which would put him just outside the top 10.
Colm Murphy said he had a real good cut through stage 4, landing in the grass after several big jumps and reckons as well his stage time for stage 3 is very dubious and his co driver Ger Loughrey is going to query it. Owen Murphy is still flying through the stages and said his Lancer is down on power. Keith Cronin told us his Lancer is starting to misfire and the young man looked a bit worried about his engine. Phil Collins is still the man to beat in the 2 wheel drive category, Phil’s total 38.52.8 and he said “Really enjoying ourselves, had a few big slides”. Brian O’Mahony lost a few seconds when he slid his Clio into a bank. Happily still going. Tom Holton and Mark Courtney are having a big battle in their respective Celicas. Tom told us that he slid off the road in stage 4 into a field and lost a bit of time as the Celica isn’t good over the stubble! Mark was then ahead of him but went off the road at a hairpin and Tom squeezed past him and is doubtful if Mark will get his Celica out of there any time soon. Ken O’Neill’s Puma came into service at the end of a tow rope after stage 3, it would appear that something has broken in the transmission.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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