| RALLY NEWS NO.4 Service/Armagh/Friday 9.30
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 5 – TODD’S LEAP
1st (3) Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle (Impreza WRC) 28.37.1
2nd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 29.13.8
3rd (6) Tim McNulty/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 29.45.3
4th (10) Gwyndaf Evans/Huw Lewis (Lancer N) 30.08.3
5th (5) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 30.11.7
6th (4) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 30.17.1
7th (9) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 30.19.6
8th (17) Phillip & Simon Morrow (Lancer N) 31.06.2
9th (14) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 31.07.4
10th (15) David Higgins/Ieuan Thomas (Corolla S2000) 31.11.4
As the darkness descended the lead cars on the Phillip White Tyres Ulster Rally tackled the Todd’s Leap stage near Beragh. Once again it was Kris Meeke who led the others a merry dance, Kris 13s faster than Eugene Donnelly who in turn was just over a second quicker than the heroic Guy Wilks. Wilks was the fastest of the Tesco 99 British Championship contenders, the Durham man saying that his confidence was slightly shaken by the mechanical problem earlier with his Mitsubishi but his time certainly belied that lack of confidence sentiment. Guy is lying outside the top 10 on a total of 32.12.9. As for young Kris Meeke, he said at stage finish. “We chose a cut slick Pirelli, it worked beautifully, there was no standing water, we had a great run”. Eugene Donnelly confessed. “Kris cleaned me. I was pretty happy with the A10 slick tyres that I picked but its not all down to tyres by any means”.
Andrew Nesbitt has been fighting hard to regain the form he has shown in the past on this Ulster Rally but his hard work on that 5th stage was undone when his Subaru stalled at a hairpin and perhaps 15s ticked away before he could continue. Tim McNulty continues to have his good run and he is right in the frame with his Pierse backed Subaru. Mark Higgins felt that a suspension change and raised ride height on his group N Impreza had made the car much better over the jumps and he was a fair bit happier. The British Champion was however over a second a mile down on both Wilks and Gwyndaf Evans. Phillip Morrow lost a bit of time in the stage when he caught Wyn Hunphreys, the latter’s GpN Impreza still suffering gearbox troubles. Phillip said that he didn’t lose too much time getting past the struggling Subaru but his concentration went a bit awry, what with lights in the mirror afterwards and so forth….
Of the top Group N Tarmac Championship contenders Colm Murphy was 10s faster than Seamus Leonard. Murphy has adjusted the suspension on his Subaru and said the car is just about right now. Leonard’s bad day continued when the rear view mirror fell off the screen, landed in the centre console, knocked off the fuel pump and then rattled around the car! Neil McCance has unfortunately had to retire his Lancer because of a broken prop shaft. Neil got the car out of stage 5 and was going to try and get through stage 6 but a transfer box or something broke as well on the road section and that was that. David Higgins is still struggling a little with his Corolla S2000, the suspension not ideally suited to these jumpy Ulster roads. Conrad Rautenbach has adjusted the suspension on his Citroen and he’s a lot happier. Kevin O’Donoghue got a puncture on his Lancer on the way to the start of stage 5, when he went to put on the spare he discovered it was a slick so he cut some extra slot with a hacksaw blade!! Nik Elsmore lost several minutes when his Lancer turbo pipe came adrift. John McGlaughlin has been going very hard, setting some good times, but his Lancer is slightly out of shape having clipped a rear wheel on the spectator stage and also lost valuable seconds passing Miles Johnston. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (with thanks to Michael Patterson): www.rallynews.net
*For SMS results & news to your mobile text RALLY BRC to 60066 UK, 53030 Ireland. Cost 25p/30c. Text RALLY STOP to stop at any time. Provided by stagetimes.com
|
