| RALLY NEWS NO.6 Ballymena Finish/Saturday 5.45 Ammended Mon 12.00
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 10 – final stage
1st (65) Sean Devine/Damien Duffin (Impreza WRC) 42.42
2nd (1) Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly (Corolla WRC) 43.54
3rd (6) Richard Hogg/Mark Hanna 9Octavia WRC) 44.30
4th (8) Kevin O'Kane/Martin Brady (Impreza WRC) 44.35
5th (11) Andrew Purcell/Mick Courtney (Impreza) 44.39
6th (5) James Murphy/Tommy Speers (Escort WRC) 45.08
7th (4) John & Mandy McKeown (Esc.Cos) 45.15
8th (67) Paul Britton/Martin McGarrity (Impreza N) 45.35
9th (30) Martin McCormack/Noel Downey (Escort) 46.06
10th(12) Martin Cairns/Garry Monteith Subura Impreza 46.19
This has been a fairly historic Townparks Rally with Sean Devine scoring a hat trick of wins, Glenn Allen winning the NI Championship by finishing 2nd and Ian Cochrane putting his name in the record books by taking 2nd in GpN behind Paul Britton but winning the category in the NI Championship. There is still a little debate about who is the winning championship co-driver and it looks very much as if it will go to Tony McHugh rather than Damien Connolly.
When Sean Devine and his co driver Damien Duffin brought their Subaru into the finish here at Ballymena Sean took time to tell us. “I enjoyed the day It was a heavy pace this morning and then this afternoon the roads started to tear up a wee bit. It would have been easy to fall off the road so we eased back. It was a good rally and great to get another win”. Glenn Allen was only 5th this morning on the opening stages as he tried to settle himself into his rebuilt Corolla but he moved quietly up the leaderboard, his cause helped when Stephen Moore slid his Focus into a Ballypatrick ditch and that relieved the championship pressure at least. 39 year old Glenn from Cookstown commented here at the finish. “We had the championship all wrapped up earlier in the season then made it hard work. One Corolla later and a ball of heartbreak we’ve won it. I’ve been rallying 12 or 13 years and I’ve always wanted this. But I didn’t enjoy this morning, couldn’t settle into the car. Derek McGeehan did some adjustments and it felt better and then I was able to match Sean’s times. Honestly I’m glad to get the day over.”
After some deliberation Glenn’s co driver Damien Connolly has also won the NI Cahmpionship co-driver title. Damien and Tony McHugh tied at the finish of the rally but Connelly gets the nod due his his higher number of wins.
Third placed Richard Hogg had all sorts of problems towards the end. He reckoned the Skoda had broken an engine or a gearbox mounting and the gears were changing all by themselves. The damage happening on the first square left in the Black Mountain stage where he thought he was going to overshoot and ran wide.
Paul Britton won Group N today with a terrific run and said. “I enjoyed it, a bit rough at the end but I felt I was on a good pace”. Ian Cochrane nearly blew it towards the end when he reportedly almost ran out of petrol and was late after the Beaghs stage, but Ian and his co driver David Vance got their Lancer to the finish, 5th in group N and provisionally have taken the GpN title in the championship. Eoin McErlean and his co driver Donard McCann seemed to be well on course for a top GpN result which may have netted them the GpN title but their Lancer ground to a halt with a broken rear differential.
Marty McCormack, co driven today by Noel Downey, turned in another superb performance to finish best of the Mk2 Escorts and that was despite a lack of rear brakes. Marty has won class 7 while Ian Millar looks to have won cl.5 in his Escort. James Murphy got ahead of John McKeown over the final few stages in the race for the best Escort Cosworth. Colm McFall retired his example from the top 10 on the Black Mountain stage. Finally for now well done to Raymond Linton and all his Mid Antrim MC team for a great day’s rallying and many thanks to all who supported the Rally News service. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
