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RALLY NEWS NO.6 Service/Saturday 4.30
UNOFFICIAL LEADEREBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 Newon Hill
1st (1) Gareth MacHale/Craig Parry (Focus WRC) 32.14
2nd (2) Tim McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 32.43
3rd (5) Derek McGarrity/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 32.56
4th (6) PJ McDermott/Sean Harris (Impreza WRC) 33.26
5th (8) Hugh M Doherty/Michael McBride (Impreza WRC) 33.28
6th (7) Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 34.00
7th (3) Paul Harris/John McElhinney (Corolla WRC) 34.25
8th (11) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 34.42
9th (9) Michael Curran/Fabian McShane (Lancer N) 35.13
(37) Howard Clarke/Jason Harron (Lancer N) 35.13
11th (17) Cathal Rogers/Sean Ferris (Lancer N) 35.16
On the 15.6km Mouldy Hill stage, 5th of today’s 8 stages, Gareth MacHale was the only one to break the 8min barrier recording 7.58. Tim McNulty was 2nd fastest on 8.09 and Hugh Martin Doherty 3rd fastest on a time of 8.15. On the short 6th stage there was very little in it with Gareth MacHale again fastest but by just 2s this time from Tim McNulty. Derek McGarrity and PJ McDermott tied for 3rd quickest and Hugh Martin Doherty was next up, but there were just seconds in it. Gareth said after that stage 6: “I gave that long stage a bit of a cut and it worked well, on the last stage, the short one, it wasn’t really very nic and I backed off”. Tim McNulty seems resigned now to finish 2nd and his main sentiment coming into service was “Two stages to go and then I’m looking forward to a gin and tonic!”. Derek McGarrity had a spin and stall on the long stage which thwarted any chance of a fight back on McNulty.
PJ McDermott spun and stalled his Subaru at a hairpin in stage 6. Paul Harris lost road time when his Corolla developed alternator problems. Hugh Martin Doherty was looking fairly pleased when he came in and he said. “We’re really starting to come together with the car”. Paddy White is on a total now of 35.56 but not very happy when he came into service, he thinks there is more than a hint of fuel starvation and can also smell petrol in his Focus. Joe McHugh is on a total of 35.48 in his Escort Cosworth, Joe, co driven by his brother Dermot, lost a few valuable seconds in stage 6 when they spun the Cosworth and got it jammed between the banks.
In Group N Garry Jennings continues to have a slight edge on Michael Curran, Garry reporting no problems, Michael happy to clock up the miles in his new car. Howard Clarke has turned in a charge to come up into 3rd group in GpN just ahead of Cathal Rogers although Howard thinks he may back off slightly through the final 2 stages as his Lancer clipped a rock on the last loop, and he doesn’t want to overdo it. No sign here at service of Gavin Harris & Shaun Lafferty in the Remax liveried Lancer, more news on that later. Shaun & Pearse Callaghan of the An Grianan Hotel have knocked the bumped off their GpN Impreza but are having a decent run otherwise. Dickie Curran knocked the exhaust of his Lancer and is lying just outside the top 20. Emmet O’Hara/Eoghan Rogers banged the front right corner of their Lancer when a post jumped out in front of them!
In the 2 wheel drive category Camillus Bradley has come through very strongly on the last few stages to get ahead of Damien Gallagher. Brian Brogan is provisionally 3rd in the 2 wheel drives, just ahead of Eugene Ferry. Gary McPhillips lost time on that loop with a puncture and then a misfire. Damien Gallagher admitted that he lost concentration through the long stage. Adrian Hetherington lost time with a spin in stage 6 and Mark Alcorn spun his Corolla TC at a junction and also was off the road briefly. Columba Heena led cl.11 in his Corolla after SS4. Adrian Foley led cl.10 in his Corsa. Seamus Gallagher was 1st in cl.6 with his Saxo.
On the world championship Rally France in Corsica – Loeb led after stage 10 by 17s from Marcus Gronholm with Dani Sordo 3rd, Duval 4th, Latvala 5th and Petter Solberg in the Subaru 6th. Mat Wilson in his Focus was 13th almost 7 minutes down on the leader.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
