RALLY NEWS NO.5                    Castletownhere - Sunday  1.30

UNOFFICIAL HISTORIC LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 5 TIM HEALY
1st (2) Dessie Nutt/Geraldine McBride (Porsche 911) 54.46
2nd (3) Frank Cunningham/Ross Forde (Cooper S) 55.19
3rd (6) Steve Smith/Phil Spurge (Porsche 911) 55.45
4th (9) Mervyn Johnston/Richard Hyland (Mini Cooper) 56.24
5th (44) Les Allfrey/Kevin Devine (Mini) 58.43
6th (38) Mark I'Anson/Graham Walker (Porsche) 58.56

UNOFFICIAL POST HISTORIC LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 5
1st (87) Jim McRae/Paul Gullick (Porsche 911) 53.22
2nd (22) Chris Browne/Ali Cornwell (Escort) 54.41
3rd (12) Todd Falvey/Dan Barry (Porsche 911) 55.45
4th (24) Kevin Flanagan/Adrian Parry (Mini) 55.58
5th (8) Martin Ward/Linda Conroy (Manta A) 56.25
6th (5) Joe Connolly/Gareth Connolly (Escort) 56.35

The tough Tim Healy stage was always expected to take a few prisoners, but so far we have only heard of one driver to fall by the wayside amongst the Historics and Post Historics.That was Graham Samuel, whose Escort was lying in the top 3 Post Historics leaving Castletownhere.  Jim McRae set a brilliant time over the stage, eclipsing the other Post Historic drivers, his nearest challenger Chris Browne being 16s back, while Todd Falvey was a full 40s back from the flying Scotsman. 

In the Historic section, Dessie Nutt didn't have such a good time.  It was actually Steve Smith who was fastest on 13.59, Frank Cunningham in the Mini Cooper did 14.06 and Dessie Nutt was back on 14.17.  At stage finish Dessie's co driver Geraldine did mutter something about having a few problems……

Just to recap on the Classic section of the rally, while we await their times from Tim Healy.   Dessie Keenan had a huge lead over Pat Donegal with Dave Slattery 3rd (all in Escorts) after stage 4.  The only car to break the Escort domination was Kieran O'Neill's Kadett, but unfortunately Kieran has now withdrawn, his clutch problem with the Kadett insurmountable. Also withdrawn is David Cook in the Eaton Yale Escort at 155, David overheated the front brakes on the car in Ardgroom and the by the time he got that sorted, he was over maximum lateness. 

More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON    www.rallynews.net