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| Circuit of Kerry |
| RALLY NEWS No.5 - Service - Sunday @ 13:49:02 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.5 Service/Tralee/Sunday 1.45
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4 Desmonds Grave
1st (1) Thomas Fitzmaurice/Fionn Foley (Impreza WRC) 38.21
2nd (4) Brian O'Mahony/John Higgins (Impreza WRC) 38.32
3rd (3) Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 38.36
4th (2) Kevin Barrett/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 38.43
5th (9) Frank Kelly/Liam Brennan (Escort) 39.37
6th (10) Declan Boyle/Gary McNern (Escort) 39.38
7th (7) Colm Murphy/Don Montgomery (Impreza N) 39.59
8th (131) Eugene Meegan/Brian Sharkey (Lancer N) 40.02
9th (8) Mike Quinn/Grainne McEnery (Escort) 40.11
10th (127) Mark Donnelly/Andrew Purcell (Lancer N) 40.32
Following his fastest stage time in stage 3 Brian O’Mahony was quickest again in SS2 to leapfrog from 4th to 2nd o/a. Rally leader Thomas Fitzmaurice lost many seconds when he spun his Subaru in that 4th stage. The Transmission Links Ireland man told us. “I think the spin cost us 15s. That was all my hard work gone. I thought I could cruise home but it’s a whole new ball game now. Brian is going well. However, we’ve been here before”. Niall Maguire who has been relegated by 2nd to 3rd by O’Mahony’s charge admitted that there is little he can do about the two cars in front, but at the same time the stages are new this afternoon over tricky mountain roads and it could be a different situation.
In Group N Eugene Meegan recovered from his dramatic SS3 spin to set a good time through stage 4 but was 1s down on Colm Murphy who has also speeded up. Murphy said. “We had a good enough run but we are trying to keep our noses clean. The problem with the back wheels locking could be down to something wrong with the differential. Its like a Mk2 Escort now going into the corners but we’re down on traction coming out. I could lose out to Gene Meegan this afternoon going up the hills because his car has a lot of power, but we’ll have good craic coming down”. Mark Donnelly holds 3rd in GpN and his times are improving as the day goes on. It is almost a year since Mark did a tarmac rally.
In the Mk2 Escort battle through stage 4 Declan Boyle was 1s faster than Frank Kelly to leave Kelly leading by 1s on total time. Frank said. “We’ve nothing left. He’s getting me on the fast stuff. We were on the limiter in 6th gear in three different places on that last stage. We did lose a couple of seconds on the tight stuff when the car clipped a bank”. Declan Boyle commented. “Its like a fresh start now with these 2 mountain stages. To be honest I’m not looking forward to them. I enjoyed this morning’s very fast roads.” Mike Quinn is only 33s behind Declan Boyle and he is still having brake problems in his Escort, so if he gets that sorted he could make a charge back. Pat Kelly has had an accident in his GpN Subaru and held up Escort man Tim Enright in stage 4 although only by a few seconds. Aidan Walsh’s rwd Peugeot has suffered some overheating difficulties and Aidan is hoping to continue but its not looking too good.
On Rally Portugal Petter Solberg was fastest through stage 20 but is still over 2m behind 3rd placed Novikov. Hirvonen has now a comfortable lead from Ostberg. There are 2 stages remaining.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
Follow RallyNews on Twitter @ pacenotes
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