RALLY NEWS No.2 - Lurgan Park - Saturday @ 12:05:13
RALLY NEWS NO.2 Lurgan Park/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 2
1st (1) Kris Meeke/Gerry McVeigh (Mini WRC) 4.23.8
2nd (3) Derek McGarrity/Kieron Graffin (Mini WRC) 4.25.2
3rd (2) Kenny McKinstry/Lesley McGaffin (Impreza WRC) 4.27.2
4th (4) Garry Jennings/Kerry McCarter (Impreza 555) 4.32.9
5th (6) Derek McGeehan/Laurie Smith (Mini WRC) 4.36.9
6th (5) Kevin & Paul Barrett (Impreza WRC) 4.39.9
7th Ray Brammer 8th Stuart Biggerstaff 9th Mark Doyle 10th Martin Teggart
Kris Meeke finished the 2nd stage of this Orchard Motorsport Lurgan Park Rally with a broad grin on his face. His time was 5s quicker than his first run and that moves him into the lead of the rally. The man from the Bush crossroads, not far from Lurgan Park, said. “That was a bit better. In fact a lot better. It was really enjoyable. Pity we couldn’t do about 6 laps non-stop. It was definitely very greasy to start with. At drivers briefing this morning they asked us if we had any questions. I wanted to know if somebody else would run first on the road! That’s how much I was looking forward to the first stage.” Derek McGarrity slipped from 1st to 2nd when his Mini WRC indulged in a half spin at the hairpin right in front of the paddock. Derek said. “Apart from that we had a good run but I definitely dropped a couple of seconds there.” There is still only 1s between 1st and 2nd place so it is all to play for and as we type this RallyNews the blue skies have been replaced by a big black cloud and heavy rain has started!
Kenny McKinstry in 3rd said. “We had a good run”. Kenny’s time was less than 3s down on Meeke’s time for stage 2 but here in the Park every second counts. Kenny’s immediate reaction was. “Time for the slick tyres now”. However, the onset of this rain may change the Banbridge man’s mind! Derek McGeehan held on to 5th place behind Garry Jennings. Derek admitted he was trying just a little too hard and had a few half overshoots under braking.
Stuart Biggerstaff is a solid 7th behind Ray Brammer. Stuart has only driven the “family” Metro 6R4 once before and that was on a Hill climb so he is no doing too bad. His co-driver Danny O’Carroll who plays Buster in the TV series Mrs Brown’s Boys, chirped in to say “He’s doing effing great”. Mark Doyle was 5th after the first run but has dropped to 8th because his Celica clipped a tree with the front right hand corner. Keith White had a great run through stage 1 to hold 10th o/a in his Mk1 Escort, but he is parked out on stage 2 having clipped a bale at a chicane. Ray Brammer lost a few seconds when his Subaru made contact with the tyres at a chicane. Alan Carmichael hurt his wrist when he had his Subaru up on 2 wheels near the stage finish. John McKeown is settling in to his newly built Escort WRC and said. “Its hard to get back after the lay off”. John is lying 12th o/a. Andrew Mullan is leading GpN from Mark Massey. The latter driver’s Lancer has some sort of turbo intercooler problem.
Jimmy McRae is leading Class 7 from Raymond Johnston with Drew Wylie 3rd. Drew describes this as the “OAP’s class”. Seven times Circuit of Ireland winner McRae only sat in this Escort for the first time last night, and he found in stage 1 that some times he was in 2nd gear when he should have been in 1st.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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