RALLY NEWS No.9 - Milford Service - Saturday @ 14:25:46
RALLY NEWS NO.9 Service/Milford/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 12
1st (3) Garry Jennings/Neil Doherty (Impreza WRC) 1.10.41.7
2nd (2) Darragh O'Riordan/Tony McDaid (Impreza WRC) 1.11.11.8
3rd (8) Seamus Leonard/John McCafferty (Impreza WRC) 1.11.57.3
4th (5) Derek McGarrity/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 1.12.50.3
5th (7) Donagh Kelly/Kevin Flanagan (Impreza WRC) 1.12.58.6
6th (6) Niall Maguire/Conor Foley (Impreza WRC) 1.13.15.2
7th (9) Aaron MacHale/Eamonn Walsh (Focus WRC) 1.13.38.8
8th (1) Darren Gass/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 1.14.16.6
9th (17) Sam Moffett/James O'Reilly (Lancer N) 1.15.41.1
10th (133) Josh Moffett/Jason McKenna (Lancer N) 1.15.45.1
UNOFFICIAL NATIONAL L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 12
1st (12) Declan & Brian Boyle (Escort) 1.14.51.0
2nd (14) Manus Kelly/Donal Barrett (Escort) 1.15.18.2
3rd (22) Martin McGee/Denis O'Mahony (Escort) 1.16.24.9
4th (146) Ed O’Callaghan/Raymond Scott (Escort) 1.16.50.1
5th (29) Callum Duffy/Iain Duffy (Escort) 1.16.55.8
6th (26) Paul Barrett/John McElhinney (Escort) 1.18.01.6
7th Brian Brogan 8th Sam Kelso 9th Adrian Hetherington 10th Geoffrey Dolan
Despite hurting his arm in a brush with scenery in stage 11 Garry Jennings sset a fastest time in stage 12 to maintain his lead on this Topaz Donegal Rally. Whenever he reached service Garry’s partner Kerry produced a packet of frozen peas which was used as an ice pack for his swollen elbow. Garry said about the accident. “It was a wild dunt. I didn’t know where I was for a moment.” He went on to say to Kerry. “The accident happened just down the road from where you were spectating on the first run through. Could you take a race back and see if you could find the wing mirror that was knocked off. Its about 4 grand’s worth!” Ironically, Kerry told us earlier that Garry had taken her for a run in the new hired Peter Lloyd Subaru. When he brought the car to a halt he looked at her and said “Will we sell the house?” She went on say for a split second she thought seriously of it…..
Over in the Darragh O’Riordan camp the young Cork man was kicking himself for having spun at the same hairpin in the Gartan stage where he had spun his Subaru first time through. His co driver Tony McDaid commented. “We had to do a bit of the David Attenborough’s through the undergrowth”. Seamus Leonard in 3rd said. “We had a good run through the last 2 stages. We made the right tyre choice. Its very wet and slippy but it’s the same for everybody. We’re going hard but safe although the last chicane in stage 12 nearly caught us out as the bales were all closed up and it’s a real fast bit of road. We were doing a lot of knots”.,
Fourth placed Derek McGarrity recounted a puncture towards the end of that 12th stage and as regards his subdued performance so far he said. “Its just a combination of small things. Like the broken wiper blade is not the excuse of the year. In fairness these boys at the front are going very hard. Really though I’m happy enough to be going into Knockalla and Kindrum in 4th. There could be big changes.” (The competitors have only completed 40 stage kms this morning. There are 80 this afternoon).
Conor Harvey was fastest GpN through SS11. Sam Moffett was 2s faster than his brother Josh through that eleventh stage and then Josh was 2s faster through 12. Sam still leads the category by 4s. Conor Harvey is 3rd GpN and lost around 20s this morning when he made a mistake at a junction and sailed through Rebecca Graham’s backyard and re-emerged up her lane on to the stage. He thanked his stars for his navigation rally experience! Manus Kelly was fastest National runner through SS12 to narrow the gap to leader Declan Boyle down to 27s. Martin McGee holds a solid 3rd and Ed O’Callaghan is 4th. The top 3 are class 14. Ed has a smaller capacity engine and is in class 13. Ed lost 15s with a throttle position sensor problem.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ & MICHAEL PATTERSON www.rallynews.nt
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