RALLY NEWS NO.10 Servive/Gort/Sunday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER SS10 LOUGH CUTRA
1st (4) Declan & Brian Boyle (Impreza WRC) 52.27.6
2nd (1) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 52.53.5
3rd (6) Sam Moffett/James O`Reilly (Fiesta WRC) 53.20.0
4th (5) Donagh Kelly/Kevin Flanagan (Focus WRC) 53.24.9
5th (14) Josh Moffett/John Rowan (Lancer) 56.06.9
6th (26) Stephen McCann/Lisa O`Dowd (|Lancer N) 56.28.0
7th (21) Eugene Meegan/Sarah Whelan (Lancer N) 56.40.7
8th (15) Martin Doherty/Conor Foley (Lancer N) 57.09.0
9th (29) Brendan Cumiskey/Ronan O`Kane (Lancer N) 57.47.5
10th (27) Pat Kirk/John McElhinney (Lancer N) 57.57.9
UNOFFICIAL NAT. L/BOARD AFTER SS10
1st (16) Declan Gallagher/Ryan Moore (Starlet rwd) 54.45.9
2nd (17) Wesley Patterson/Johnny Baird (Escort) 56.29.1
3rd (25) Pat Kelly/Jonathan Kelly (Impreza) 56.45.9
4th (34) Kevin Eves/Chris Melly (Corolla TC) 57.13.2
5th (31) Neil Pierce/Aileen Kelly (Civic) 57.20.4
6th (19) Tom Flaherty/Patrick Curley (Escort) 57.47.9
With just 3 stages remaining the gap between the leading two is 26s. Garry Jennings turned in a sizzling time on the Black Road stage, almost 13s faster than Declan Boyle. This was Garry`s response to losing so much time in stage 8, Bradys Yard, when his Subaru hit a flood an went off the road. Through the stage before service, Lough Cutra, Garry was again fastest but by just 1s this time from Declan Boyle. Whether Garry can pull back that 26s is the million dollar question. Declan Boyle was fairly relaxed at his service point here at Gort Mart as he told us. `there are a lot of fast uphill sections on that Black Road stage and the coolant pressure went up to 4 bars. The car was dropping of a cylinder in the stage. We bled the system before stage 10 and the car seems OK then`.
Garry Jennings` co-driver Rory Kennedy joked. `We hit that flood like a speed boat, absolutely flat out and the car flew up on top of a wall, half in a field. It was a real handling to get it turned. We knew the flood was there but it is a matter of trying to take every advantage. It is finger out now!` Sam Moffett is pushing hard in his new Fiesta WRC in his race with Donagh Kelly. There is a big battle between these two for what could be the final podium position. Changes to the leaderboard in the main rally include Colm Murphy`s Impreza is parked up just after the skew bridge just before the finish of the Black Rd stage. This means that Stephen McCann now leads the GpN category from Eugene Meegan with Martin Doherty 3rd. Doherty intends to do the entire Tarmac C/ship this year and he is going a lot better today, but is not going to indulge in any heroics.
We mentioned earlier that the later GpN cars such as Brendan Cumiskey suffered from the nominal time being applied on stage 6 following Donnelly`s accident. That decision has now been amended and all the cars will get the nominal time. Pat Kirk has settled in to his new car today and seems a lot happier and is getting more of a feel for the tyres as well as the car.
A further retirement from the main field would appear to be Steve Simpson. His Subaru was involved in an accident in stage 9 and is reportedly parked in stage 10. In the National category Declan Gallagher is looking very settled in the lead and he said. `We will just have to hold the head for this last loop of stages`. His closest pursuer Wesley Patterson admitted to a wrong call on tyre choice for the last loop of stages. He went for an intermediate tyre when in fact there were rivers of water running across the roads.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL With thanks to Zoe. www.rallynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter @Pacenotes or @REal_RallyNews
