UPDATED AT 2pm: Late News: Gareth MacHale crashed out on Caragh Lake. Gareth OK Co driver Craig Parry taken to hospital to have his back checked. Denis Biggerstaff also crashed. Out of rally, crew OK.
Eamonn Boland and Gareth MacHale continue to swap seconds on every stage in their fight for the lead of this Killarney Rally of the Lakes. Just 3s separate the pair now with 5 stages remaining so anything can happen. Eamonn commented here at service. “There is no break for me at all is there? Everything is fine with the car, we will switch on to harder slick tyres for the next few stages. Surely it will stay dry, but you never know!” Gareth MacHale said. “We had a good run up Molls, the tyres were fine, that set the tone for the day. On Ballaghbeama the tyres may have been a little soft for that stage. The next 2 stages, Ballaghasheen and Been Hill, were very fast, very abrasive. It went well, still a bit to go, better to be chasing and we will not have a repeat of the Circuit this time”.
Derek McGarrity maintains 3rd and as regards the time difference front and behind he is very much on his own. Dessie Keenan reckons he picked too soft a tyre for Molls Gap, but other than that he’s been going well, and said the car is brilliant after they changed some suspension settings. Aaron MacHale in 5th has some small problem with the digital read out for the gears and he is finding that the car is very dead after square corners and the read out is sending a signal “circuit tripped”. Patrick Elliott in 6th is driving his own rally, content on clocking up the stage miles in his new car, his mind more on the next National round in Cavan.
Kris Meeke is battling very hard to get up into the top 6 but Kris said. “Its going to be tough now, the stages don’t suit the wee car. Out of the tight corners with big straights we are losing buckets of time, just not enough power”. PJ McGrath in 8th made a wrong tyre choice this morning. Denis Biggerstaff lost a few seconds when his Impreza slid off the road at a square right in stage 13. He reckons he should have made it a hairpin right. Then on the road section into service the turbo packed up, but happily there is plenty of time to change the unit. JJ Fleming is starting to get into the groove now. Kevin & Martin Kelleher are holding on to their lead in GpN with Alan Ring 2nd and John McGlaughlin 3rd. Damien Tourish is the highest Evo Challenge contender and he is just behind McGlaughlin. John told us that he thought he had heard a strange noise at the back of his Lancer after Molls. Everything seemed to be OK though but then the rear differential blew on the road section into service. The unit has now been changed. In the Fiesta Sporting Trophy Alastair Fisher was trailing Elfyn Evans by 3s following the Ballaghasheen stage but then over the Been Hill test Alastair went into maximum attack mode and took 17s out of Evans to move into the lead. In the National Rally Phil Collins has now got a 22s lead over Martin McGee with Fergus O’Meara 3rd and Dave Slattery 4th, all in Escorts.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynewsnet
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