There have been 3 leaders now in 3 stages with Peadar Hurson moving to the front on stage 3 and he said. “Good clean run, nothing too dramatic”. When he said that his co driver Damien Connolly rolled his eyes skywards so perhaps he saw it slightly differently! Derek McGarrity had led after stage 2 but he stalled his Subaru at the stage start and lost perhaps 4 or 5 seconds which was just enough to cost him the lead. Fastest through the stage was Tim McNulty and at the stage finish he banged the steering wheel and said. “That’s what it all about!” Eugene Donnelly reported that he had moved up one notch in the compound of his tyres but it hadn’t really made much difference and he had a good clean run. Not so happy was Gareth MacHale, the No.1 seed reported gearbox troubles at the finish of the stage. Gareth moved from the sequential to the manual shift but that wasn’t quite right either and he is a little worried that the Focus may not reach service. Darren Gass whom we reported having some overheating problems following the Hamilton’s Folly stage had a good run through that stage 3. It transpires that Darren took a jump very hard in Hamilton’s Folly and the blades from the fan went through the radiator so it’s hardly surprising the car was overheating!
Aaron MacHale has changed the suspension set up on his Focus WRC and he found the car “more comfortable, better” through that 3rd stage.
In Group N Sean Flanagan still leads in his hired Subaru but Sean is struggling to get the car around the hairpins. The car’s set up is a little different from his own. Alan Carmichael was a lot faster than the other Lancers in the International Rally through that 3rd stage having changed the suspension set up on his new car. Alan is now ahead of Stanley Ballantine and Willie Mavitty. Mavitty is in an old model Lancer and is struggling to get
the car slowed from high speeds due to brake shudder. In terms of the Evo Challenge it is almost impossible to work out who is leading as the National B section did not get doing stage 2 because a “OO” car stopped when one of the crew suffered a back injury after the big jumps and an ambulance had to be sent in. This means that we do not have times for people like Neil McCance and John McGlaughlin in their Evos, but they were certainly going quicker than the top International Evos through stage 1. Rory Byrne is fairly well in the hunt in his Lancer and reported a good smooth run through SS3.
Just outside the above leaderboard Darragh O’Riordan in his Clio was provisionally 11th o/a and fighting for 12th place is Mark Donnelly and Craig Breen in their Fiestas. Just to recap on the National B section of the rally, after 1 stage Kenny McKinstry had 1.5s in hand over Seamus Leonard with Adrian Hetherington 3rd in his Mk2 Escort. Emma McKinstry was 4th. She thought she had her Subaru well set up for the bumps and jumps but she reckons now that it might be a little too stiff and she is going to soften it up. Wesley Patterson was 5th in his Escort and Denis Biggerstaff 6th in his Subaru. Denis felt that the car was dropping off a cylinder and was hoping to get something sorted here at service. Neil McCance was 7th and leading group N in his Lancer. Jack Maguire was 8th in his Escort Cosworth. John McGlaughlin was 9th just over 2s down on McCance. Camillus Bradley was 10th.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Michael & Zoe Patterson): *For SMS results text RALLY ITC to 53030 (Irl) or 60066 (UK): Text STOP to switch off. Cost 30c/25p
