RALLY NEWS NO.9 Charterhall Service/Sunday 3.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 18 (FINAL STAGE)
1st (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 2.11.36.4
2nd (3) Tim McNulty/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 2.14.01.3
3rd (2) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC 2.14.37.3
4th (6) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 2.19.02.3
5th (14) Gareth Jones/James O'Brien (Focus WRC) 2.20.06.5
6TH (8) David Higgins/Ieuan Thomas (Corolla S2000R) 2.21.39.0
7TH (18) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 2.22.40.5
8TH (16) Phillip Morrow/Daniel Barritt (Lancer N) 2.23.40.0
9TH (25) PJ McDermott/Sean Harris (Impreza WRC) 2.24.00.8
10th (22) Kevin O'Donoghue/Joe O'Leary (Lancer N) 2.28.22.7
11th (32) Darren Gass/Neil Shanks (Citroen C2) 2.28.29.3
12th (23) Robert Swann/Darren Garrod (Impreza N) 2.28.31.0

Eugene Donnelly and his co driver Paul Kiely had a very clear cut victory today on this Jim Clark Rally while Mark Higgins’ 4th overall wins group N for himself and his co driver Rory Kennedy, and also nets them maximum Tesco 99 BRC points and indeed also moves Mark into the lead of the Tarmac Championship with 46 points as against Eugene Donnelly’s 39 and Eamonn Boland’s 29. When Donnelly brought his Reid Motorsport Subaru into the finish of the Swinton stage he said. “I’m just delighted, its my first Jim Clark win in 5 years of trying, just brilliant. Its another first as well to win with the S12 for the Reid Motorsport team and it was thanks to great work from Eddie Corr, the engineer, Prodrive and of course the Derek McGeehan team. The rally was difficult with changing conditions, Tim was always pushing hard and he’s had a great comeback after all his accidents and problems. Overall it was a very good rally a real challenge, it’s a shame that more of the Tarmac competitors didn’t enter”. Tim McNulty said. “Twelve valuable points, glad to get to the finish, things went 100 per cent towards the end”. Eamonn Boland commented. “Not too bad but would you believe it, I had wet tyres on for the last 3 stages in the dry”.

Mark Higgins said. “It was nice to get the points in both championships. It was a frustrating first day trying to hold on to the Mitsubishis but it all worked out well”. Gareth Jones seemed to have regained some of his form in finishing 5th, although his final stage was a bit frustrating with 2 over shoots and saying hello to a couple of sheep. David Higgins in 6th finished 2nd in group N in the new Toyota and David said. “There were lots of little problems but the car is improving all the time, its getting there and hopefully we will have a good Manx”. Colm Murphy in 7th was the highest placed Tarmac group N contender and he commented. “It was great craic on the rally, sideways at every junction, we thought it was the brakes but now it looks as if the centre diff has worn, but sure it will make for good TV!” PJ McDermott from Donegal was delighted with 9th o/a, his best ever result and it was always a learning curve for PJ, his first proper run in the Subaru. Killarney man Kevin O’Donoghue survived a broken drive shaft for the last 3 stages in his Lancer to take 10th o/a and bag a useful tally of Tarmac group N points.,

Darren Gass had a great drive to finish 11th in his Citroen, just held off Rob Swann by less than 2s at the finish. Darren won his class very convincingly on his first run in the Citroen and with no testing. Guy Wilks has finished outside the top 10 on a total of 2.30.05.2 and it remains to be seen how many British c/ship points he will be allotted.

Roy White is down the order following his broken drive shaft problem on stages 14 and 15 and he said he was “hooliganing” through the last 3 stages, sideways at every junction and bushes sticking out of the Lancer’s rear spoiler would appear to back that up. As we are waiting for more cars to come in the 2 Suzukis of Lorna Smith and James Wozencroft are just finishing the Swinton stage and it looks like they will be 1st and 2nd in their class.

Finally for now many thanks to all who supported and helped with our RallyNews service.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net

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