UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 6 – end of Leg 1
1st (1) Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 45.07.0
2nd (3) Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 45.33.1
3rd (7) Mark Hggins/Rory Kennedy (Impreza N) 45.49.0
4th (8) Guy Wilks/David Moynihan (Lancer N) 46.26.8
5th (9) Gwyndaf Evans/Paul Nagle (Lancer N) 46.53.8
6th (4) Kenny McKinstry/Noel Orr (Impreza WRC) 46.54.5
7th (19) Darren Gass/Neil Shanks (Lancer N) 47.17.7
8th (6) Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Impreza WRC) 47.19.3
9th (23) Stuart Jones/Andy Bull (MG S2000) 47.27.4
10th (16) Seamus Leonard/Gerry McVeigh (Lancer N) 47.29.3
11th (18) Phillip Morrow/Gordon Noble (Lancer N) 47.42.3
12th (10) David Higgins/Ieuan Thomas (Impreza N) 47.49.9
Through stages 4 and 5 Kevin Lynch was fastest, and then on stage 6 Eamonn Boland responded by setting a quickest time. Guy Wilks meantime had slipped from 2nd to 4th as he battled with a broken rear differential on his Lancer. Derek McGarrity also lost time with 2 punctures to go from 4th to 8th. As ever when Eamonn Boland arrived into service he reported all well with no problems, he knew he was slightly slow through stage 4 but could give no real reason. Kevin Lynch told us that he changed all the differential settings on his Subaru and had a real charge. He set remarkable times through stages 4 and 5 and then on stage 6 dropped a couple of seconds. He wasn’t happy with the spotlight pod on that stage, switched off the spots, and indeed there was one corner he was very lucky to get round.
Kenny McKinstry dropped quite a few seconds through stages 5 and 6, and he said that the car is still going very well, it was just his eyesight letting him down in the dark. Derek McGarrity ran over two boulders lying on the road and that is what caused his punctures. Guy Wilks said he heard his diff starting to whine a couple of miles before the end of stage 4. He had to really grit his teeth to drive the car through stage 5 as the noise from the diff was horrendous as the teeth kept falling off. Then when they all went it was quiet, but it was definitely 2 wheel drive only and perhaps his run in Finland last week in Honda stood him in good stead, but he certainly did a fabulous job of keeping his time loss down to less than 40s. Mark Higgins lost a couple of seconds squeezing past McGarrity’s stricken Subaru and the dust thrown up by Derek’s punctures was a bit of a problem, but otherwise had a good run despite a very heavy landing over a Todds Leap jump, following the downhill hairpin left.
Gwyndaf Evans put up a great drive through the darkness to hold on to his 5th place. David Higgins reported the throttle stuck open on his Subaru in stage 5. He had to switch the ignition off momentarily which also switches the differentials off and it takes quite a few seconds to get everything switched on again. Sebastien Ogier is still having a good run in his Citroen C2R2 Max although he lost a couple of seconds when he missed his braking point at a junction in stage 6. Brian O’Mahony is 24s back on the young French driver. Brian is struggling a little with his down on power engine. Glenn Allen dropped back to 14th o/a from his earlier 9th, his Corolla suffering a broken drive shaft. Seamus Leonard had a lucky escape on stage 6 when he clipped 2 rocks lying on the road. It knocked the steering of his new Lancer out slightly, but somehow he escaped punctures. Neil McCance had been a model of consistency, punctured a tyre on stage 3 and on exactly the same corner through stage 6 got another puncture.
Keith Cronin is leading the Evo Challenge contenders despite his Lancer having a noisy rear diff and clunky front suspension through the last couple of stages. Keith nursed the car and has now a fair lead on Danny Barry from Neil McCance. Stuart Jones has been doing a good job in his MG S2000, moving steadily up into the leaderboard and that was despite a stage 6 puncture. In the Irish section of the Citroen C2R2 Cup which is a double header this weekend, Marty McCormack has dropped to 3rd following a stage 6 puncture and Adrian McElhinney has won with Martin Tynan 2nd, with Jason Pritchard 4th. In the UK section of the Cup McCormack leads from Pritchard.
