| RALLY
NEWS NO.11 Armagh/Finish/Saturday 5pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 16 – FINAL STAGE
1st (3) Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle (Impreza WRC) 1.54.31.5
2nd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 1.57.13.5
3rd (5) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 1.59.16.0
4TH (9) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 2.00.19.6
5TH (10) Gwyndaf Evans/Huw Lewis (Lancer N) 2.01.06.2
6th (14) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 2.04.28.7
7th (17) Phillip & Simon Morrow (Lancer N) 2.05.31.6
8th (26) James Cullen/Reba Graham (Lancer N) 2.06.05.2
9th (21) Conrad Rautenbach/Dave Senior (Citroen C2) 2.07.10.7
10th (23) Sebastian Ling/Aled Rees (Lancer N) 2.07.12.1
Kris Meeke and his co-driver Paul Nagle have scored a fabulous victory
this weekend, their Pirelli Subaru in front from start to finish, Kris
demonstrating again his world class talent. Eugene Donnelly and Paul Kiely
in the Reid Motorsport Subaru may have got a bit down in the dumps at
times but they still scored a fine 2nd place. Eugene is now in a very
strong position to retain his Tarmac Champion’s title. Eamonn Boland
& Francis Regan had a good run to 3rd and they are in top form to
take their Subaru to the Wexford Rally next weekend, Eamonn’s home
event. Mark Higgins & Rory Kennedy have won the Group N category in
their Impreza, Mark almost certainly moving into the lead of the Tesco
99 British Championship. Gwyndaf Evans put up a brilliant performance
and never stopped trying even when his Lancer had the front drive shaft
problem and he lost some time.
Kris Meeke said when he arrived in after the last stage. “It’s
incredible, 10 days ago I was booking a holiday for this weekend. Dick
Cormack from Pirelli approached me at Lurgan Park, asked me to do the
Ulster. A lot of people came on board to make it happen. You know this
is only my 4th rally in a world rally car and my first time on Pirelli
tyres. I know now why the Finns are so quick on the Finnish roads. They
feel at home as I did here. The high hedges, the jumps, the kicks, you
get a feeling for them. A great rally, a great weekend”. Eugene
Donnelly said. “It was a demoralising event for us but the team
is doing its best, sometimes that’s the way it happens. My wholehearted
congratulations go to Kris Meeke, he drove brilliantly”.
Colm Murphy in 6th with his GpN Impreza was the highest placed GpN Tarmac
C/ship driver. Once again Colm and his co driver Ger Loughrey showed great
mastery of slippy difficult conditions. Phillip & Simon Morrow in
7th take maximum Evo Challenge points and indeed today’s performance
is another step forward to clinching the Evo Challenge c/ship. James Cullen
& Reba Graham in the second of the Reid Motorsport cars was 8th o/a
and earned valuable Tarmac points. Conrad Rautenbach had a great run to
9th in his little Citroen. Interestingly, Darren Gass was running in Super
Rally today and put up some great times, 4th quickest overall through
the Friary Lough stage. Julian Reynolds/Patrick Walsh made a cautious
start to the rally, but kept their heads down today to get back into the
top 10 but then dropped time on the last stage with a broken drive shaft
to allow Seb Ling to get ahead.
Late incidents included: Toni Kelly sliding her Civic off the road into
a gatepost and losing several minutes handing the class 7 lead to Killarney
man Dave Randles in his Nissan Almera. James Wozencroft led class 2 in
his Suzuki Swift and his team mate Lorna Smith, providing she got through
the last stage, was going to be 2nd in class which would tie up the class
in the Tarmac C/ship. Conrad Rautenbach is the class 6 leader in his Citroen
C2. 17 year old Alastair Fisher from Ballinamallard finished just outside
the top 20 and won his class in his GpN Fiesta. Alastair said that apart
from enjoying the rally it was great to get some knowledge of the Ulster
stages. Finally for now our thanks to all who supported and helped with
the Rally News service. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
