For the lead drivers it was rain all the way through stages 12 and 13. Kevin Lynch was fastest on both. Eamonn Boland’s Subaru suffered a puncture on 12 and dropped just under 10s and then on stage 13 he was just 0.7 of a second slower than Lynch. There are just 3 stages left to go and Eamonn’s lead now is 32s. When the cars arrived into the regroup control Eamonn explained. “I just touched a stone on that first stage after service and the front tyre went down. Luckily for me the stage had been shortened and I lost very little time. We had a good run through that last stage.” Kevin Lynch by this time had brought his Subaru to a halt and was lying back, looked absolutely knackered, and told us. “My back is killing me. I hurt it yesterday on a jump on Todds Leap”. When asked how he had fared on the previous stage he said. “Terrible, the windows steamed up, we nearly killed ourselves. The heated front screen was Ok for half the stage and then it didn’t seem to work”.
Mark Higgins continues to lead the British championship contenders as well as being 3rd o/a and when talking about the conditions Mark’s co driver Rory Kennedy said. “It was like threading a needle out there, on shiny wet tar. I was braking at times myself”. Guy Wilks is still setting some great times and has battled back to 4th o/a, 2nd British series contender and he said. “I have no problems with the car, but its time for no dramas, just hold station, no point in attacking now”. Guy’s team mate Gwyndaf Evans said. “We’re steady, OK, just doing the job, but there’s a lot of shiny tar out there”.
Phillip Morrow admitted to being cautious, he said he was just watching to see how everyone else got on through stage 12 and then pushed a bit harder through 13. Kenny McKinstry had a good time through 12 which is his home stage, but as he said. “The couple of miles I knew really well were cut from the stage”. Derek McGarrity also reported no problems and he’s right up with the top times and moved from 6th to 5th on stage 13. Keith Cronin has moved up another place into 9th, the young Cork man quite happy to see the rain. Interestingly Keith’s co driver Greg Shinnors commented. “Keith would be quite happy with a 2 speed gearbox, 4th and 5th, he tackles everything in 5th gear and is so smooth”.
Sebastien Ogier said he made a good tyre choice and had no problems with his Citroen or with the stages and again just matching seconds with Brian O’Mahony in the Clio. David Higgins lost a few seconds when he spun his N14 at a hairpin right and stalled. David said that the car felt really good through stage 12 and then not so good through 13. Glenn Allen was on the grass a few times towards the end of stage 13 but got away with it. His co driver Damien Connolly said that they had hardened the suspension but had maybe gone just a little too far with it. Nik Elsmore is now up to 2nd of the Evo Challenge contenders today. Neil McCance is into 3rd ahead of Danny Barry. Barry is still struggling to get any speed out of his Lancer.
In the Citroen C2R2 Cup, today being the 2nd leg of the double header this weekend, Marty McCormack has streaked into the lead ahead of Jason Pritchard with Adrian McElhinney 3rd. In the battle of the diesel cars John Mulholland is still going in his Skoda having survived a dramatic moment last night when his Octavia plunged off the road and knocked down a telegraph pole. The door on co driver Dessie McGlade’s side was very badly damaged, so a car was robbed of its passenger door in the showroom and fitted to the rally car this morning. Just a pity they picked a red car as the rally car is all white!
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
