The Banard stage is relatively new although bits of it have been used before on the Rally of the lakes. A lot of it is over narrow roads through farmland and there is plenty of gravel and mud in places. This did cause the drivers some difficulty this time and Tim McNulty lot his lead when he put his Subaru in a ditch for just under a minute. Patrick Elliott’s Subaru slid off on a square right corner and got stuck in a ditch.
Gareth MacHale was fastest through stage by just one tenth of a second from Eamonn Boland while Eugene Donnelly was 9s slower. Eamonn Boland and Gareth MacHale reported no real problems. Eugene Donnelly told us. “I had a bad run, it just wouldn’t flow”. Tim McNulty was in a real rush to clear the stage but the front left hand wheel looked like it was knocked out of shape, possibly some suspension damage so he could well lose time over the next 2 stages until he gets to service at Millstreet. Tim had been looking so confident in the lead over the first loop of stages but obviously just got caught out on gravel. Denis Cronin emerged from the stage with tufts of grass sticking out of the front of his Subaru and he said that he had spun on the gravel and slithered into a ditch. Aaron MacHale lost a few seconds getting past Denis but Aaron still set a fairly respectable time.
Alan Ring continues to lead group N but he had a lucky escape when his Lancer slid on gravel and glanced off the ditch. Ring was fastest of the GpN runners but by just under 3s from Alastair Fisher. Colm Murphy was 13s down on Ring and Shaun Gallagher was a further 10s down on Murphy. Mark Nangle appears to have his clutch problem reasonably sorted out on his Impreza but said it is still not perfect. Shaun Gallagher said he is starting to get into his stride a bit better. Sean Flanagan had scraped the side of his Lancer and knocked the wing mirror off and compared to the Impreza is finding the Lancer a bit of a handful. Alastair Fisher said he was being careful enough and had lost a few seconds squeezing past Jer O’Donovan in the stage.
In the Fiesta Sporting Trophy Shane Buckley has surged to the front ahead of Craig Breen and Mark Donnelly who had led has dropped back to 3rd having scored a poor time in stage 4.
Some class places in the International include: Daragh O’Riordan not only moving into the top 10 but leading cl.6 in his Clio. Dave Randles is up to 13th o/a in his ex works Nissan Almera and is leading cl.7. Joe McGonigle & Kim Baker are leading cl.2 in the Civic. In the National Rally for modified cars Wesley Patterson leads by 23s from Adrian Hetherington with Fergus O’Meara 3rd, all in Escorts. Interestingly, Wesley Patterson’s total time after stage 4 was 31.32.3 which would be good enough for 10th o/a in the International field. Wesley said at stage finish. “We picked too soft a compound tyre but still couldn’t get grip and the car wouldn’t brake well at all.” Adrian Hetherington was looking very determined in 2nd place and he is obviously making a charge after Wesley.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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