Following his turbo pipe problems on the opening stage Garry Jennings was fastest through stage 2, Knockmany, by 14s from Donagh Kelly. Jennings was 4m late starting stage 2 but his co driver Rory Kennedy is adamant that there is no road penalty on this event for lateness up to 15m, and then it is exclusion. A 40s penalty has been applied to Jennings but Rory has requested for it to be removed. In typical Garry fashion he looked at Rory and shrugged his shoulders and said. `It will make no odds!`
Donagh Kelly is trying very hard not to get too exuberant on the stages, but that can bring its own problems as well as he discovered when his concentration wavered and his Focus WRC took a wander into a Knockmany ditch and then he stalled the car as well! Derek McGarrity is in 8th place and is struggling to get settled into his Impreza WRC. One of the engine cooling fans was not working through the first stage and also the lid came adrift on the water container behind the driver`s seat and flooded the footwell with water. Between one thing and another Derek then cut a corner too tight and took a huge chunk out of the front rim. Somehow or another the tyre did not go down, so maybe Derek`s luck is not so bad today.
Stephen Wright had a brilliant run through stage 2, third fastest, a couple of seconds up on Desi Henry. Desi thought for a minute or two through stage 2 that his Skoda had a puncture as it went into a couple of big slides. Then it came OK, so it must just have been the slippery surface. Several other drivers, for example Frank Kelly, also mentioned that although the roads were bone dry, they were slippy. Daniel McKenna had a slow time through stage 2, having spun and stalled the Toyota GT86 at the final hairpin. Derek McGeehan had a good run through SS2 and is top of the list in the National B section of the rally from Frank Kelly with Shane McGirr just a few seconds back. Ashley Dickson`s son Ian retired his Fiesta on the first stage with a broken engine mounting. Jon Armstrong was just over a second quicker than Rob Duggan through stage 2 and Callum Devine woke up on that stage to set a time equal to Jon Armstrong. A rather despondent Jonny Leonard is still having some problems with his Lancer. Stanley Ballantine was tearing his hair out before the start as his Lancer engine misbehaved and wiped the computer settings.
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