There was disappointment for Garry Jennings as his Subaru just would not perform on the opening stage and Garry dropped well over half a minute to the fastest man, Donagh Kelly. Ironically Donagh said before the start that he was going to concentrate on the Championship, and not worry too much about the stage times. A major factor in Donagh`s bid for the Tarmac Championship title is that Sam and Josh Moffett made the decision not to start the rally because of an illness in the family. Donagh`s main threat to his Tarmac title would have been Sam Moffett. Desi Henry was f2nd fastest through the stage and he was just bubbling with enthusiasm about his Skoda S2000. Desi said at stage finish. `The car was brilliant in there and I loved the stage`.
News coming in from stage 2: Unofficially, we hear that Garry Jennings` Subaru is back on full song on stage two when a turbo pipe was tightened up. Unofficially Garry seems to have set the fastest time, but may have a 40 second road penalty. Derek McGarrity finished stage 1 a little late and told us about water sloshing around the floor of his Impreza, and also the temperature of the car going up, Derek still going through stage two.
More news from stage 1: Stephen Wright had a decent run but reported a slight vibration in his Fiesta R5`s brake pedal at the start of the stage. As the miles clicked up the problem seemed to resolve itself. He did have a small issue in testing during the week when the Fiesta1s rear diff disengage did not function properly. Jonny Greer is on his first outing since his Citroen R5 went on fire on the final Circuit of Ireland stage. The car is fully sorted although Jonny said that he feels a bit ring rusty. He also told us that he is using the new FIA soft rubber tyre on the car and although there is a bit of understeer it is working well.
Frank Kelly was the fastest Escort but found the stage very slippery. Camillus Bradley thought there was something not quite right with his Escort, and he backed off, recording a time of 12.26.4. Daniel McKenna in the new Toyota GT86 reckons he is on a test and development exercise, but still set a decent time of 12.07.4. Shane McGirr found the suspension of his Starlet very nervous and he was relieved to have only dropped 20s to Frank Kelly. Rob Duggan had a brilliant run to record a time a fraction quicker than Jon Armstrong, Jon is on his home patch here of course. Callum Devine has Keith Moriarty co-driving and was 8s down on Jon Armstrong. Jonny Leonard had all sorts of problems with his Lancer engine before the start and it was reflected in his stage time, well over 30s off the pace.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL & ZOE PATTERSON www.rallynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter & Facebook @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
