| RALLY
NEWS NO.10 Mall/Armagh/Saturday 2.30
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 12 – FRIARY LOUGH
1st (3) Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle (Impreza WRC) 1.28.02.3
2nd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 1.30.24.2
3RD (5) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 1.32.05.0
4th (9) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 1.32.42.2
5th (10) Gwyndaf Evans/Huw Lewis (Lancer N) 1.33.28.5
6th (14) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 1.35.07.1
7th (17) Phillip & Simon Morrow (Lancer N) 1.36.33.3
8th (26) James Cullen/Reba Graham (Lancer N) 1.37.31.5
9th (21) Conrad Rautenbach/Dave Senior (Citroen C2) 1.47.21.5
10th (24) Julian Reynolds/Patrick Walsh (Lancer N) 1.47.45.2
It is a long road run from Armagh out to stage 12, Friary Lough. In stark
contrast to the sunshine in Armagh City by the time the lead drivers were
ready to start the stage the roads were awash with torrential rain. Part
of the time lapse was to make sure a wedding party had exited the stage
area. The long and the short of it was that the drivers were all caught
on dry weather tyres for the soaking wet roads. Kris Meeke completed the
same stage earlier this morning in 12m19s, this time it took him 12m55s.
Eugene Donnelly was correspondingly down on time. Interestingly, the Group
N drivers, Gwyndaf Evans and Mark Higgins were only a couple of seconds
slower than this morning. Colm Murphy was a couple of seconds faster.
Kris Meeke reported at stage finish that he had stalled the car at a hairpin
right and also had to do a couple of three point turns. Eugene Donnelly
had a spin at the first hairpin, said he was on too hard a compound slick
tyre and it was like driving an 1100 Escort. Gwyndaf Evans was in a big
hurry to get up the road from the stage. Mark Higgins said he had a good
run and was 11s faster than Gwyndaf to increase his advantage to 46s with
4 stages remaining. Colm Murphy seems to be revelling in the difficult
conditions and said “That was great fun”. Phillip Morrow had
a terrific run and was almost 8s faster than Murphy. Seamus Leonard retired
his Lancer. He had earlier been talking of engine problems with the Lancer
and had slowed down through that Friary Lough stage to the extent that
James Cullen caught and had to pass, so we presume that Seamus has pulled
in somewhere. John McGlaughlin has crashed his Lancer on a square left
junction, a deceptive place where many top drivers have gone off the road
in past years. Following drivers topped to make sure John and his co driver
Crawford Henderson were OK.
Kevin O’Donoghue is going to compete on his home forestry rally
in Killarney tomorrow and he reckons that today’s slippery stages
will be a great warm up for the woods. Kevin is on a total of 1.48.17.3
and can’t be far away from the top 10. Lorna Smith crashed her Suzuki
Swift on stage 11 but happily kept going despite a fair bit of body damage.
Lorna was caught out at a crest jump and her Suzuki clipped a bank on
the right and fell over. Lorna is on course to win her class in the Tarmac
C/ship and it is important that she finishes today and indeed she could
wrap it up today despite the fact that final round, the Cork 20, has 50
per cent bonus points. Jeremy Taylor & Jody Patterson, running at
No.72 in the Raymond Mason hired Lancer had a big flat in 5th gear moment
over a crest in stage 11, the car also landing in the grass but Taylor
was able to keep it under control. It is their first time on slick tyres
and they are gaining confidence by the mile in the www.rallynews.net backed
Mitsubishi.
Class leaders after stage 11 included: Conrad Rautenbach in his Citroen:
Alastair Fisher in his Fiesta, now up to 23rd o/a in the GpN 1600cc car.
James Wozencroft is leading cl.2 in his Suzuki. Toni Kelly is leading
class 7 in her Honda Civic R. Andrew Gamble is leading cl.5 in his Micra.
In the National Rally – Camillus Bradley has a 31s lead over John
Price in his Metro 6R4. David Kynaston is up to 3rd in his Audi. Paul
Britton is 4th. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (thanks to
Michael Patterson): www.rallynews.net
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