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RALLY
NEWS NO.4
Service/Saturday/3pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4 St. Angelo
1st (2) Derek McGarrity/Chris Patterson (Impreza WRC) 17.13.4
2nd (7) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 17.18.9
3rd (1) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Impreza WRC) 17.33.3
4th (3) Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 17.42.8
5th (4) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 17.44.1
6th (9) Maurice Gass/Geoffrey Orr (Impreza WRC) 17.48.9
7th (8) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 18.21.9
8th (20) Gareth Jones/Ryland James (Impreza) 18.25.6
9th (5) Peadar Hurson/Ian Porter (Impreza WRC)18.26.2
10th (11) Roy White/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 18.30.8
The second visit to the St. Angelo stage may have a significant impact on the
results. Andrew Nesbitt was pushing McGarrity very hard for the lead of
this Circuit going into St Angelo but a momentary lapse saw the Tarmac
Champion reportedly jump the start lights of the stage and may receive a 1
minute penalty. To a certain extent this is still unofficial, and will
need to be confirmed in rally headquarters later this evening, but the
timekeepers were in no doubt, and Andrew himself knew he had blown it. Indeed,
he was so upset that his stage time was 5s down on McGarrity. The stage
caused many drivers problems of a different sort. Spins and slides were the
order of the day. Peadar Hurson spun his Impreza WRC, couldn't find a
gear to get going in and dropped 20 or 30s, plus 2 places on the leaderboard.
Tim McNulty spun his car, as did Seamus Leonard, the latter dropping 5s to gpN
leader Roy White. Leonard's total is now 18.41.3. Dickie Curran's
total is 18.40.6. Aaron MacHale 19.25.8, Aaron dissatisfied with the ECU
set up on his new engine. Shaun Gallagher is coming more and more on the pace
and his total 18.52.2. Raymond Johnston 18.46.3.
Moving away from the gpN machinery, Eugene Donnelly in the Envirocare Subaru
has had a problem from the start with his new helmet. Through that stage 4 he
could not hear anything at all, and there is a new helmet being brought up to
Irvinestown for him before stage 5.
Young Welsh visitor Gareth Jones spun and stalled in St. Angelo, didn't lose
too much time and still going well. Jaye Jordan another to have a spin. Garry
Jennings seems to be losing time, his Peugeot 106 Maxi in some sort of
difficulty with the front left transmission, could be a driveshaft, don't know
for sure just yet.
One driver a bit more cheerful was Andrew Stewart. The Letterkenny man wasn't
happy with his performance through the first 3 stages. His Richard Hogg
mechanics have found that the water injection was not working, Andrew
reporting his Lancer to be much better through stage 4. Double Donegal
International Rally winner, James Cullen, is seeded down at 26 in a Tony Kelly
Cars/4 Lanterns backed Civic, and is having a ball. He reckons that today's
very fast stages do not particularly suit the Honda, that it will be a
different story when he gets on to the twisty stuff. Colm McFall burst a
strut on the front of his Escort Cosworth on the bad bumps in stage 2, all
sorted at service and going well again. More news later. BRIAN AND LIZ
PATTERSON (with thanks to Michael Patterson and Zoe Todd.)
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