Stages 4, 5 and 6 are a repeat of the opening 3 stages and logic would dictate that with the weather staying dry the drivers would be slightly faster than the first time through. In fact nearly all were slower apart from one man and that was Kevin Lynch. Lynch set a completely stunning time through the stage of 7m29s whereas Eamonn Boland this time was on 7.44. Mark Higgins was 2nd fat4est on 7.43 and Guy Wilks’ Lancer stopped the clock on 7.45, but Guy’s Lancer was in trouble at stage finish. The rear differential was making enough noise that it could probably be heard the whole way down the M1 to Belfast! Eamonn Boland made no real comment at the finish of the stage and certainly didn’t give any indication of why he was slower than the first time through. Perhaps it was down to the difficult evening light, neither daylight nor darkness.
Kevin Lynch was completely fired up at stage finish and said. “No mistakes that time”. Kenny McKinstry reckoned he had a very good stage until he saw the time and it was 12s slower than his first run through. Derek McGarrity was querying his time, but it seemed to be correct, and indeed was quite good, 5th quickest. Guy Wilks told us that he reckoned the car was unlikely to make it through the next 2 stages to service. Gwyndaf Evans reported a good time as did Seamus Leonard and he was delighted to be just a second down on Gwyndaf. Seamus’ Lancer was once again in good health with the power steering fully functional. Glenn Allen though tat one point in the stage that perhaps there was a rear driveshaft broken on his Corolla, the car was wandering about at the back end. However, it seemed OK at stage finish. David Higgins reported that the suspension on his new Impreza N14 had been stiffened up at service and although the car was much more difficult to drive it seemed to be improved.
Emma McKinstry was very unhappy with the handling of her Subaru over the first 3 stages and the mechanics then discovered that the front differential settings were all wrong. That has been sorted and she really enjoyed stage 4. Sebastien Ogier had a good run through that 4th stage. The young French star had his Citroen C2R2 Max just ahead of Brian O’Mahony’s Clio S1600 after the first 3 stages and Adam Gould was a further 17s back in his Cleio. In the Citroen C2R2 Cup Marty McCormack made a real quick start to the rally and was well ahead of Adrian McElhinney at service with Martin Tynan 3rd, Sam Moffett 4th, Jason Pritchard 5th and Andrew Hockridge 6th. Andrew had some problems with the cut out switch to the gearbox/engine not functioning properly over the opening stages.
Just outside the above leaderboard: Stuart Jones is 11th in his MG S2000: David Higgins 12th: Phillip Morrow 13th: Sebastien Ogier 14th: Denis Biggerstaff 15th. There are still times coming in of course and Keith Cronin could well come into that top 15, Keith has been setting some quick times but still driving on the safe side of flat out. More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Michael Patterson)
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