| RALLY NEWS NO.5 Macroom/Service/Saturday 4.15
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 South Lake Road
1st (1) Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (C4 WRC) 55.04.0
2nd (3) Dani Sordo/Mark Marti (Xsara WRC) 56.07.2
3rd (5) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 57.55.1
4th (7) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 58.03.8
5th (9) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 59.41.5
6th (8) Tim McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 59.46.5
7th (12) Aaron MacHale/Killian Duffy (Focus WRC) 1.00.20.5
8th (2) Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen (Focus WRC) 1.01.17.2
9th 14) Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Focus WRC) 1.01.23.6
10th (19) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (Impreza WRC) 1.01.39.4
There were several significant changes to the leaderboard over the last loop of 2 stages, Killnamartra and South Lake Road (Lough Allua). Gareth MacHale has disappeared off the leaderboard while Mikko Hirvonen has come charging on to it. Colm Murphy has moved into the GpN lead. Keith Cronin has dropped back with engine troubles to his GpN Lancer. Gareth MacHale’s problem seemed to stem from a broken drive shaft and his Focus running on 2 wheel drive.
Through all the changes one thing was constant, Sebastien Loeb in his Citroen was fastest from his team mate Dani Sordo with Mikko Hirvonen 3rd on both tests. Loeb’s co driver Daniel Elena admitted that they perhaps picked too soft a compound tyre for those stages but otherwise they had no problems and thought the stages were really good in places. Sordo and Hirvonen also reported no problems.
Mark Higgins reported nearly running into Gareth MacHale’s Focus which was jammed across the road in stage 5. Mark stalled his Subaru and then followed Gareth for a distance before managing to squeeze past. Mark felt that through stage 6 the front differential of his Pirelli backed Subaru wasn’t working properly and the car was spinning and inside wheel on some corners and also suffering under steer. Eugene Donnelly felt he had gone well through that South Lake Road stage and was surprised to lose 7s to Higgins on that one test. Tim McNulty lost a fair bit of time through stages 5 and 6, Tim admitting that he sort of fell asleep, that the long stages are getting to him and he needs to be a bit fitter. Eamonn Boland had a good run through those 2 stages, earlier niggly problems with the intercom and the anti lag system behind him. Eamonn closed the gap on McNulty in front. Aaron MacHale in 7th commented. “I’m pushing hard, enjoying the rally, we will maybe try to harden up the suspension a little, but everything is OK”. Ray Breen in 9th reckons there is something wrong with the steering and or front suspension of his Focus and he lost quite a few seconds through stage 6. Michael Barrable didn’t feel like he had a good run through stage 6 but enjoyed stage 5 over the mountain. Denis Biggerstaff now has the gearbox fixed in his Subaru but the car is overheating. Denis Cronin is having 6th gear trouble with his Impreza. Stephen Moore in the Focus WRC is gradually getting his act together and Hugh Martin Doherty is settling in now to his new Impreza WRC S12 and is very happy with his new car.
In Group N Colm Murphy is really setting the roads alight now, having a ball. Owen Murphy reckons his Lancer engine is still down on power although the mechanics have changed the turbo and Owen now thinks it might be an electronic mapping problem. Keith Cronin got back into service but had dropped many minutes because of the misfire in his Lancer engine. He is going to try and fix the problem in service, but it is not looking good. Kevin O’Donoghue had a big overshoot at an uphill hairpin left got away with it although his Lancer had a soft front right tyre. Kevin Kelleher passed Keith Cronin in stage 6 but didn’t seem to lose any time, Kevin lying right up near the top of the group N times. Martin Brown/John Kilmurray brought their GpN Lancer into service but reckoned the car would go no further because of gearbox trouble. Mark Nangle in the GpN Subaru lost some time when he caught and got stuck behind Tadgh Linehan’s BMW, Tadgh said he is just getting into the swing of the M3. Tom Holton in the Celica is having a good run but admits he has no answer to Phil Collins. The Escort man is flying and leading the Modified category. McRae Stages Rally: Jonny Greer has won the FST from Elfyn Evans. Alastair Fisher 3rd. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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