RALLY NEWS NO.7                         Sligo - Finish - Sunday  6pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 8 - Final stage
1st (12) Steve Fleck/Andy Card (Impreza WRC) 1.13.33
2nd (4) Glenn Allen/John Gallagher (Escort WRC) 1.13.42
3rd (3) Steve Hendy/Aled Davies (Esc.Cos) 1.14.38
4th (5) Alan Nesbitt/Enda Sherry (Celica) 1.15.53
5th (7) David Kynaston/Andy Russell (Audi) 1.17.00
6th (34) Sean Devine/Robert McDaid (Impreza N) 1.17.46

7th (23) Raymond & David Johnston (Lancer N) 1.17.56
8th (14) Dominic McLaughlin/Cyril Donnellan (Peugeot rwd) 1.18.23
9th (45) Damien Gallagher/Mac Walsh (Escort) 1.19.12
10th (11) Mark Worley/David Gamblin (Lancer N) 1.19.22


Steve Fleck and co driver Andy Card have taken their Impreza WRC to a momentous victory on this Sligo Stages Rally.  With 2 stages to go it was Cookstown's Gl'enn Allen 2s in front of the English crew.  Through stage 7 Fleck was 4s faster than Allen and through stage 8 was 7s faster, to win the rally by 9s.  Interestingly, Steve Fleck is not registered for the Tarmacadam Championship and is just here to enjoy the rally - and what a day he has had.  When Steve brought his lovely Impreza under the arch-ramp here at the Sligo Park Hotel he told us "A wonderful day, I was flat out towards the end. I guess its probably my best results and it is a long time since an English driver has won one of these rallies. I started to make my own pace notes last year, but I found I was inconsistent, switched back to the Patterson notes and it has made all the difference. I've had a real good day".  Glenn Allen was not quite so happy, saying "I thought I was further ahead going into the last 2 stages, with more in hand. Maybe If I had known I could have gone harder, but we'll never know the answer to that. Its one of those things, it was still a good day's rallying".  Steve Hendy, 3rd overall after a gritty driver, said "I enjoyed it, the guys in front were having a real good fight, and I decided to back off a little, go for the 25 points in the Tarmacadam Championship, which I think puts me into the joint lead with Dave Kynaston". "

In Group N it looked as if Raymond Johnston was heading for victory in his Lancer, but Sean Devine drove brilliantly through the latter stages in his Impreza, while Johnston had 2 problems.  One of them was allegedly touching one of the chicane/water blocks, which Raymond vehemently denies, but anyway he has a 30s penalty.  He also lost approximately 1m30s when he stopped to help another competitor - Tony Davies…who had crashed on the penultimate stage. Tony eventually got going and finished 21st, at the moment Raymond's slow stage time is showing in the results, but may be amended. However, Sean Devine will almost certainly have won gpN in his series 8 Impreza. Mark Worley at the moment is shown 2nd in gpN, and even if Johnston is moved up a couple of places, Worley will still get maximum Tarmacadam points. Subsequently Raymond Johnston has been credited with a stage interrupted time which brings him back to 2nd in GpN, Worley 3rd.

Class winners include - Enda Keenan who will take class 14. Dominic McLoughlin is the best Sligo driver and will win class 13.  Peter Rogers wins class 11. 

In the Ford Ireland Focus Championship section of the rally Colm Murphy has won from Oliver Stanley with Gerry Keyes 3rd. John Foley went off the road on the last stage and Stanley still leads the championship.
Finally for now, many thanks to everyone who helped and supported the Rallynews Service - (Barry Horan  of Horan's Menswear and Andrew Mullan of Sligo Pallets: Ford of Ireland). Many congratulations to Robert Lyttle and his wife Arenda, and to all the hardworking team at Connacht MC. Our thanks also to Andrew Haill, Colin Salkeld and Ciara Conlon.  BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON                www.rallynews.net