RALLY NEWS NO.8 Milford Service/Saturday
UNOFFICIAL INT/L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 10
1st (3) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Impreza WRC) 1.06.25.5
2nd (1) Declan & Brian Boyle (Fiesta WRC) 1.07.15.3
3rd (2) Donagh Kelly/Kevin Flanagan (Impreza WRC) 1.07.45.6
4th (4) Derek McGarrity/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 1.08.40.8
5th (5) Daragh O`Riordan/Tony McDaid (Fiesta WRC) 1.08.54.0
6th (6) Seamus Leonard/John McCafferty (Impreza WRC) 1.09.09.6
7th Stephen Wright 8th Joe McGonigle 9th Aidan Wray
UNOFFICIAL NAT/ L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 10
1st (24) Manus Kelly/Donal Barrett (Escort) 1.09.50.7
2nd (21) Brian Brogan/Damien McGettigan (Escort) 1.10.13.6
3rd (29) Adrian Hetherington/Gary Nolan (Escort) 1.10.15.2
4th (25) Frank Kelly/Liam Brennan (Escort) 1.11.03.9
5th (28) Paul & Karl Reid (Escort) 1.11.17.3
6th (43) Declan McNaughton/Ronan O`Neill (Escort) 1.11.22.3
7th Damien Gallagher 8th David Bogie 9th Richard Moffett 10th John McQuaid 11th Stephen McCann
A few spots of rain encouraged rally leader Garry Jennings to be reasonably cautious on his 2nd visit to Knockalla. Garry said afterwards. `I just picked my way through being very careful of the slippy bits, making sure of everything as I went.` Garry has now almost 50s of a lead so he can afford to be careful. Amazingly, after all the dramas through stages 8 and 9 for Donagh Kelly he was not only as cool as a cucumber for stage 10, he was fastest in his Focus as well. When the KN Networks man arrived at service we asked him if everything was OK, and it was as if Donagh was out for a Sunday drive – he was that cool! Declan Boyle reported a good run and when asked about the business of stage start stalls he said. `It could be some wee fault or it could be me. It is a different technique with this car`. He went on to say that apart from that small problem everything was going well.
Unfortunately Seamus Leonard is not so happy as from an overnight 4th o/a he is now 6th and struggling with his Subaru gearbox. It would appear that 2nd gear has disappeared. Seamus is hoping there are enough engineers in the McKinstry camp to get it sorted. Seamus` son Dara is lying just outside the top 10 and well placed in GpN but he is in gearbox trouble as well, his Lancer having lost 5th gear. Stephen Wright had a good run over Knockalla and was a fraction quicker from Joe McGonigle. Aidan Wray continues to lead GpN.
On the 2nd run over Knockalla Manus Kelly reinforced his National Rally lead with a superb time of 10.22 as against 2nd fastest Adrian Hetherington on 10.28. We wrote earlier about Adrian ripping the handbrake out on stage 9. He certainly missed the handbrake on the acute and hairpin junctions in stage 10. Damien Tourish retired on Knockalla, this was following his collision with a chicane on SS9. Columba Heena in the Corolla GT is lying just outside the leaderboard but is in back axle trouble and is hoping for a new unit to be fitted at service.
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