The above leaderboard contains both International and national runners to give the picture of the top 12 fastest cars. This is unofficial.
On the Garrygort stage Kevin Lynch was fastest from Eamonn Boland while news from slightly further back is that Kris Meeke has crashed the Clio out of the rally and David Bogie who was leading the Nationals in his Metro 6R4 has retired following engine problems.
When the cars reached service rally leader Eugene Donnelly told us. “We were struggling a bit on that last one, the car is down on power. The compressor and the diaphragms which control the water injection and the hydraulics seem to be not working properly. The car is possibly 20 per cent down on power. I suppose the whole thing was to get the car to the finish and iron out the gremlins. Derek (McGeehan) is struggling to fix this. We had a bit of an overshoot as well at the last hairpin.” Gareth MacHale also had an overshoot in his Focus but lost just a few seconds. Eamonn Boland is stiffening the suspension of his Subaru, and in overall terms Eamonn is taking no chances. While Eamonn is defending his lead in the Tarmac Championship here in Donegal his father James is taking part in the Gordon Bennett Run and is driving a 1924 Mercedes! Kevin Lynch was deep in conversation with the Pirelli technicians and said. “Tyre choice is very important I would like a softer compound but have to be careful of the slippy places. We’re pushing steady, only halfway there. I lost a few seconds on Knockalla, had brain fade, lifted off the accelerator before the finish”.
Kris Meeke’s accident happened at a tricky crest into 3 left, just before the tractor dealers. Kris seemed to go straight off, missed the house and went into bushes. He and co driver David Moynihan are both OK. David Bogie’s Metro was possibly losing a wee bit of power on Knockalla and then on Garrygort the engine went quite sick. David did slip off the road at a square left but it was more a matter of trying to keep out of other drivers way. Seamus Devine has put his Subaru off the road at the car park at the top of Knockalla, he scattered rocks everywhere, but he’s OK as is his co driver Thomas Maguire.
Glenn Allen is now giving a real good go. He has hardened the suspension on his Corolla and is now getting on to Niall Maguire’s pace. Daniel Doherty continues to set good times and reports no problems.
In Group N it is nip and tuck between Niall McShea and Garry Jennings. Seamus Leonard is just about matching times with Niall and Garry but there’s no way he can make up the time he lost yesterday. Damien Tourish dropped a minute when he slid his Lancer off the road in stage 10. It was a 4 left that tightened which caught out Damien. Tarmac Championship gpN leader Kevin Kelleher is now up to 13th overall with Paul Harris 15th. John McGlaughlin 16th: Cathal Rogers 17th: Cathal said. “At least we’ve stopped going backwards, but we’re still 5s a stage down on the top gpN drivers”.
In the National section Phil Collins holds a slender lead, Phil said. “We’re back on song after a few nervous moments on Knockalla this morning”. Rodney Wilton is 2nd, Gary McPhillips 3rd, Wesley Patterson 4th, Damien Gallagher 5th, Martin McGee 6th and now getting used to his new 2.4 Mountune engine. Callum Duffy is 7th and has got over his earlier sequential gear change difficulties. Conor Curley is 8th. Paul Gallagher 9th and Eugene Ferry 10th.
Alastair Fisher turned in a couple of great times despite intermittent intercom troubles and having to sit behind Guy Woodcock’s Escort Maxi for many miles of Knockalla to move into the lead of the Fiesta Sporting Trophy. He is 3.1s up on “Miler” Evans.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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