The lead crews were going so fast on the 2nd run through the moorland Brenagh stage that they may well have beaten the “bogey” time. For now we are going to use actual times. These may have to be amended later. Kevin Lynch was fastest by almost 3s from Gareth MacHale with Eugene Donnelly just a fraction slower than Gareth’s Focus with Derek McGarrity less than half a second down on Gareth. Eamonn Boland was another second further back, he reported that a fuse trip popped out on that stage, something to do with controlling the rear differential setting. Gareth MacHale, Eugene Donnelly and Derek McGarrity reported no problems. Kevin Lynch was not at all happy when he discovered that his superb time may be relegated back to the bogey time. However, that remains to be seen.
When Kris Meeke brought the little Excel Clio into the finish of that fast flowing Brenagh stage he said. “I’m just loving this”. PJ McDermott had a real good run in the Voodoo Subaru to hold on to his 6th place. Glenn Allen had the suspension of his Corolla stiffened at service but he was a bit disappointed that he wasn’t faster through the stage and again dropped time to Niall Maguire. Denis Biggerstaff is still having turbo problems with his Impreza WRC. Damien Tourish continues to lead group N on a total of 26.10.5. Niall McShea is 2nd in the category on 26.22.5 and Garry Jennings 3rd on 26.23.9. John McGlaughlin is 4th in group N and had a bit of a scare at one of the corners on that 4th stage, otherwise OK. Stanley Ballantine put his GpN Lancer off the road into a ditch on the 2nd corner of the stage and has got stuck. Guy Woodcock slowed his Escort Maxi just to make sure Stanley was OK and it cost Guy a few seconds.
David Bogie is going exceptionally well in the National part of the rally and at the minute is shown as leading in his Metro 6R4. We think in fact Phil Collins is still in front, Phil having a suspect time for stage 3. Wesley Patterson is 3rd in the Modified section. Rodney Wilton is 4th. Garry McPhillips is 5th. Damien Gallagher is 6th just ahead of Callum Duffy. Dominic Naughton put his Mk2 Escort off the road on the first stage. He has managed to get the car to the end of the road but the fan is up against the radiator.
Gary Cooney in the black Lancer survived a broken drive shaft on the 2nd stage but managed to get to service. Brendan Cumiskey lost a lot of time when his group N Lancer blew its turbo. The unit was replaced here at service but Brendan was very late leaving. Tim Dougan suffered a broken drive shaft on his SEAT Ibiza on the opening stage. He had a spare shaft in the car and with the help of Donegal Oil’s McMahon brothers, Roger and Arthur, managed to change the shaft at the side of the road and got going after about 15 minutes. Tom Holton has been forced to retire his Celica when the differential, which was fitted new for the rally, broke in stage 2. The reason for Patrick Elliott’s retirement was transmission trouble with his Impreza WRC S12B. Patrick who is 40 today was philosophical about his retirement, the one saving grace about it being that it wasn’t one of the National c/ship rounds.
Finally for now, on Rally Turkey, Hirvonen leads from Latvala with Galli 3rd and Loeb 4th. More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (with thanks to Michael Patterson): www.rallynews.net
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