Garry Jennings may have extended his lead over stage 9, Garrygort, but he had a fair drama in the stage when part of his Subaru dash fell down at a jump and got stuck in the footwell jamming the throttle. Garry was laughing and joking about it at stage finish, but reading between the lines it was not so funny at the time. Both Donagh Kelly and Declan Boyle were unhappy at the stage finish. Donagh because he smacked the front of his Focus against a boulder and this broke a wheel that then ripped off the mudguard. Donagh dropped a minute and one place on the leaderboard. Declan Boyle was upset because he caught Donagh in the stage and could not get past. Declan reckons he lost many seconds during the incident. This big jump in Garrygort caused some other drivers problems as well. Daragh O`Riordan`s Fiesta WRC skittered into the undergrowth and Daragh felt he was fortunate to get the car back on the road all in one piece. One wheel was full of mud and vibrated until the end of the stage. Tommy Doyle is running his Skoda S2000 in Super Rally and has switched on to hard compound ERC type tyres and is setting some very good times, 6.18 SS9 as against Stephen Wright on 6.33 and Joe McGonigle on 6.28.
Adrian Hetherington was fastest of the Nationals through stage 9 and he was trying so hard he ripped the hand brake out by the roots at one point. Manus Kelly was less than 2s down on Adrian`s time and Manus retains the o/ lead. Frank Kelly is putting on a real push and was only slightly slower than Manus Kelly in the stage. Richard Moffett had a big moment past the tractors on the stage and put his Starlet on to the grass but luckily lost little time. Damien Tourish smacked the front of his Escort against a chicane and that has handed the Cl.13 lead to Richard Moffett. Declan McNaughton had an overshoot and dropped several places.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL & ZOE PATTERSON www.rallynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter & Facebook @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
