RALLY NEWS NO.5                     Service - Saturday 4pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 Gortnagane II
1st (3) Eamonn Boland/Damian Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 48.57
2nd (1) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 49.16
3rd (2) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Impreza WRC) 49.30
4th (11) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 50.12
5th (8) Melvyn Evans/Marc Jones (Impreza WRC) 50.35
6th (7) Donie O'Sullivan/Paul Nagle (Impreza WRC) 50.58
7th (6) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 51.30
8th (10) Maurice Gass/Andrew Cullen (Impreza WRC) 51.31
9th (17) Seamus Leonard/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza N) 51.54
10th (15) Tommy Graham/Bob Kelly (Impreza WRC) 51.55
11th (18) Roy White/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 52.00
12th (22) JJ Fleming/Jakes Kelly (Impreza WRC) 52.15

Eamonn Boland continues to dominate this Cork 20 International Rally.  Eamonn was joint fastest with Austin MacHale through stage 5, and was fastest of the top 3 through stage 6 although McNulty is showing on the results sheets as being overall fastest.  Apparently a tree had half fallen on the road slightly delaying the earlier cars.  Derek McGarrity is still hampered somewhat by smoke coming into the car. He thought earlier that it was coming from an oil pipe breather, but he thinks now that there could be oil leaking on to the exhaust manifold, and he is a little worried about the possibility of a fire.  MacHale feels he is going a bit too steady on the very narrow sections, doesn't want to risk thumping a wheel.  Eamonn Boland just simply reports "No problems". 

In Group N the position at the front has changed with Seamus Leonard going into the lead, and Roy White dropping back as his Lancer's centre differential has gone faulty.  The warning light is winking on the dash and Roy is having to drive around the problem, intent now on just getting the car to the finish and trying to win the category in the Tarmac Championship. Aaron MacHale is driving his heart out, but making no impression on the times and is starting to think that the car must be down on power.     

Switching back to the WRC cars at the front - Liam McCarthy reckons he is getting caught out for top speed. Donie O'Sullivan definitely lost time getting round that fallen tree. Melvyn Evans is starting to set some good times, and says himself his confidence is coming back after his earlier fright. Tim McNulty was in a rush to get his Impreza WRC to service, smoke coming into the engine bay.

Denis Cronin stalled his BMW M3 at the start of stage 5 and lost a few seconds. His big class 12 rival John Moynihan lost quite a bit of time on stage 5 when, on cold tyres, his Escort slid into a ditch losing almost half a minute, and also holding up Peter Lloyd. Ray Breen in the 6R4 says he has at long last woken up and he is starting to come on to the pace.  Tommy Graham has come back into the top 10 having lost approximately 30s with his earlier broken alternator bracket.  JJ Fleming reports his Impreza WRC gearbox playing up. 
In the Ford Focus Championship part of the rally John Foley has now moved into the lead from points leader Oliver Stanley, with David Delaney 3rd. Colm Murphy did lead earlier but lost time with an off road excursion.

Just outside the above leaderboard - Denis Cronin is 13th: Ray Breen 14th: Guy Woodcock 15th and going well in his Escort Maxi. Barry Coleman is 16th: Aaron MacHale 17th: Eoin Doyle in the gpN Suir Engineering Impreza 18th: John Moynihan 19th despite his accident. 023 Tiles man James O'Sullivan 20th and leading class 11 in his new green Mk2 Escort. In San Remo Loeb still leads from Martin with Gronholm 3rd. Baldacci leads the Juniors from Kris Meeke….More news later.   BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON    www.rallynews.net