RALLY NEWS NO.6 From end of Stage 7/Saturday 08.45

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 7 – Friary Lough
1st (3) Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle (Impreza WRC) 49.21.3
2nd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 50.33.8
3rd (5) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 52.10.7
4th (10) Gwyndaf Evans/Huw Lewis (Lancer N) 52.16.9
5th (9) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 52.19.5
6th (4) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 52.42.5
7th (14) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 53.47.2
8th (17) Phillip & Simon Morrow (Lancer N) 53.53.3
9th (15) David Higgins/Ieuan Thomas (Corolla S2000) 54.00.3
10th (12) Seamus Leonard/Gerry McVeigh (Lancer N) 54.11.8

Over the years the opening Saturday morning stage of the Ulster Rally has always played an important role. This year is no exception with Kris Meeke setting a hugely quick time to extend his lead over Donnelly to over a minute. Tim McNulty, 3rd overnight, crashed out and Tesco 99 British Championship contender Guy Wilks has parked his Lancer in the stage. Conditions were dry and quite bright out at that Friary Lough stage but there were still slightly damp patches in places and the drivers reported the surface to be quite slippy at times.

Kris Meeke finished the stage with a chunk out of his Subaru front left rim which he said happened on a slow corner and he just heard a little clunk, otherwise it went well for Kris, he picked slick tyres and although he found it slippy he drove brilliantly and his time was a stunning 35s faster than Donnelly. As for Eugene he feels he picked the wrong tyre and was very despondent at stage finish. The Tarmac Champion must know now that barring mishaps his third Ulster win is looking remote.

Tim McNulty parked his Pierse backed Subaru about a mile into the stage, reportedly it wasn’t a huge accident, driver and co-driver certainly OK, but Tim is stuck there. Gwyndaf Evans reported the stage to be very difficult, very slippy and very tough. Mark Higgins was fastest group N car, 8s up on Gwyndaf Evans. Mark certainly determined to make a fight of it today and just 3s behind the Welshman. Andrew Nesbitt finished the stage with a flat front left tyre. Although Andrew didn’t lose a mountain of time he really didn’t need that this morning. Colm Murphy said he was playing catch up with the back end of his Subaru it was sliding about so much. Phillip Morrow felt he was too conservative on tyre choice. David Higgins is still having steering problems with his Corolla S2000. Seamus Leonard feels that his Lancer engine is far from right. Hugh Martin Doherty is running under Super Rally rules but he reckons his new Subaru WRC S12 is just not working properly, there is something wrong with the gearbox/transmission. Owen Murphy is running just outside the top 10 and he is in centre diff troubles.

Others running just outside the top 10 include – James Cullen 11th: Owen Murphy 12th: John McGlaughlin 13th: Julian Reynolds 14th: Conrad Rautenbach 15th: Overnight class leaders included: Rautenbach: Matt Beebe in his MG: James Wozencroft in his Suzuki Swift. Toni Kelly in her Civic: Andrew Gamble in his Micra. Alistair Fisher is 2nd in class 3 behind Matt Beebe.
NEWS COMING IN FROM STAGE 8 is that David Higgins in the Corolla has stopped and Andrew Nesbitt must be running very very late….

National Rally overnight leader was Camillus Bradley by 13s from Brian Armstrong with John Price 3rd in his Metro a further 34s back. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (with thanks to Michael Patterson and Eugene McCann): www.rallynews.net

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