RALLY NEWS No.6 - Lurgan Park - Saturday @ 15:51:39
RALLY NEWS NO.6 Lurgan Park / Saturday 3.30pm
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6
1st (1) Kris Meeke/Gerry McVeigh (Mini WRC) 12.28.5
2nd (2) Kenny McKinstry/Lesley McGaffin (Impreza WRC) 12.42.4
3rd (4) Garry Jennings/Kerry McCarter (Impreza 555) 12.58.2
4th (3) Derek McGarrity/Kieron Graffin (Mini WRC) 13.00.6
5th (6) Derek McGeehan/Laurie Smith (Mini WRC) 13.10.8
6th (5) Kevin & Paul Barrett (Impreza WRC) 13.12.8
7th (7) Stuart Biggerstaff/Danny O'Carroll (Metro 6R4) 13.19.0
8th (10) Ray Brammer/Damien Fleming (Impreza WRC) 13.21.2
9th (12) John McKeown/Tommy Speers (Escort WRC) 13.27.9
10th (44) Martin Teggart/Ben Teggart (Escort) 13.37.4
Once again the heavens have opened here at Lurgan Park but for the first time the leading drivers have had to tackle a stage in the rain. All morning the rain seemed to come for the mid field and later runners only. Kris Meeke was fastest again by just under three seconds from Kenny McKinstry to extend his lead to just under fourteen seconds. Kris was just over a second slower on his second run over the reversed stage and as he clocked in to the time control he said “very wet again, it was raining and we did have the wipers on but I do not think it made that much of a difference, I am starting to think about consolidating my lead, 12-14 is a lot in here – until you get on the grass and then you can loose it all so quickly”. Second placed man Kenny McKinstry was a little upset at the finish of stage two and told us that the timekeeper at the start of the stage gave him virtually no time to get started but he was happy enough that he did not loose any more than a couple of seconds in the confusion. Derek McGarrity had to replace the radiator on his Mini WRC and as a result of the emergency repairs the team did not have a set of intermediate tyres ready so the former tarmac champion had to tackle the stage on slick tyres and he dropped a couple more seconds but was still fourth fastest.
Garry Jennings took a further 0.3 secs from McGarrity to strengthen his third place in his older Impreza 555 and he described the conditions “as slippy as hell”. Kevin Barratt was another driver who described his stage as having a few hairy moments “when you are heading for the trees you know all about it”.
Stuart Biggerstaff explained about his Metro 6R4 braking a power steering pipe which the Biggerstaff team were able to fix and the car is now back to full health. Mark Doyle is slipping back down the leaderboard as they only brought slick tyres today and he laughed as he went into service “great preparation eh!”. Ray Brammer in the RB trucks Impreza WRC is having a great battle with Stuart Biggerstaff and in fact was sixth fastest on stage six and has moved to within two seconds of the 6R4.
Martin Teggart continues to lead the 2wd in his Escort Mk2 and is having a great battle with John Waring and Viven Hamill. Teggart has admitted that he has had a couple of little overshoots but it has not really cost him any time. Alan Atcheson in the Pedro Foods Escort had traction control fitted recently but he has abandoned it as it is causing the car to misfire. Drew Wylie leads the historics from Raymond Johnston and Jimmy McRae in third and less than two seconds separates the three of them, and Wylie reckons they are the grandfathers club. In GpN Andrew Mullan still leads but he had a worrying couple of incidents when the throttle jammed open on his Lancer.
More news later … Michael & Zoe Patterson....thanks to Brian & Liz Patterson
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