RALLY NEWS NO.5                              Ballina/Finish/Sunday 6.30
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 9 (last stage)
1st (2) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 52.35
2nd (4) Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 53.24
3rd (7) Charlie Donnelly/John Conway (Celica) 53.55
4th (5) Jim Harrison/Harvey Bell (Impreza WRC) 54.33
5th (10) Adrian McElvaney/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 54.50
6th (6) Patrick Elliott/Martin Cahill (Impreza WRC) 55.13
7th (12) Sean Gallagher/Liam Costello (Escort Cos) 55.32
8th (8) Kieran Shaw/Crawford Henderson (Escort WRC) 56.48
9th (30) James & Paul McCann (Esc.Cos) 57.02

10th Seamus Leonard/Gerry McViegh (Impreza N) 57.13

Eugene Donnelly and co driver Paul Kiely had a brilliant run today on this Mayo Stages Rally to take a 49s victory over Michael Barrable, with Eugene's brother Charlie a further 31s back. Eugene commented here at the Downhill Hotel, Ballina, finish. "I enjoyed the rally, I always like wet and slippy conditions. Its too early yet to say whether I will have a real go at the Dunlop National championship, we'll see what the scores are on the doors, later on".  Eugene went on to say that he didn't have a great run through the last couple of stages, felt he made a wrong tyre choice, went on intermediate tyres instead of wets. He also had a bit of a panic when the Stan Harper mechanics discovered a broken hydraulic pipe on his Subaru transmission system. This was at the service after stage 6.  The Harper mechanics got the pipe changed just in the nick of time to avoid any lateness penalties.  Eugene's final comment was "I'm delighted for Charlie as well, having such a good run, I believe he was fastest on stage 8".  Second placed Michael Barrable told us "My biggest worry today was coming away with zero points in the Dunlop championship. I drove conservatively.  The car didn't miss a beat, so maybe the tide has turned".  Third placed Charlie Donnelly was just bouncing at the finish, and commented "I wouldn't have been here except Eugene gave me the car as a present for my 40th birthday last week.  I really enjoyed the day. Brilliant". 

The Group n category of the rally very nearly turned on its head towards the end. Seamus Leonard had built up a convincing lead, but his Impreza blew its turbo on the penultimate stage.  Seamus really struggled to keep the car going through the final test and despite yelled warnings from co driver Gerry McVeigh about a very slippy uphill 5 left at the quarry, banged the Impreza into the bank, pushing the front wheel back. He managed to keep the car going and finished 10th overall, winning gpN by just 16s from Aaron McHale. Andrew Stewart forged through to 3rd in the category. The Letterkenny man lost alot of time early with 2 punctures, but clocked up string of fastest GpN times thereafter. Derek Jobb was relegated to 4th in GpN.

Late news is that Mac McKenna has been excluded from 8th overall after failing to stop at the Stuart Darcy accident on stage 1. The Steward's of the rally felt they had no option but to take this course of action after the Monaghan driver failed to give a justifiable explanation as to why he did not stop at either the accident or the mid point radio location following the introduction of the new SOS/OK board rules.

There are still many cars heading in towards the finish - it looks as if Billy Coleman Award winner Shaun Gallagher, co driven today for the first time by Paul Nagle, is going to finish well inside the top 20 and win his class. And we hear that Seamus Donnelly/Paul Garry have been setting some sparkling times in the Escort, and is heading for a finish just outside the top 10 and a class win - if they make it here to the finish. Finally for now, many thanks to Michael Noone and all at the club for laying on such a terrific rally. Thanks also to Paul Cleary, the, Nissan dealer, who was lying 3rd in class last we heard, for backing the RallyNews, along with Gareth Lloyd from West Wales Rally Spares. BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON