The top drivers were fairly evenly matched in stage 6, Gortnagane, but having said that Eugene Donnelly was fastest on a time of 9.50.1. Gareth MacHale was 2nd fastest on 9.56.0. Tim McNulty was 3rd on 9.57.0 and Eamonn Boland recorded 9.58.0. Eamonn was hampered a little by his Subaru engine developing a slight hesitation, something to do with the anti lag device. Eugene Donnelly said he really pushed hard and he said. “The car’s brilliant, everything is working very well. I just wasn’t in form earlier on.” Gareth MacHale reckoned he should have changed his front tyres before that last stage and that he is pushing very hard. Tim McNulty’s time was all the more remarkable because there is still damage to the front suspension and the steering wheel is all askew following his stage 4 accident. Tim said that the off road excursion was all down to having too soft a compound and the tyres just lost their grip. Considering that co driver David Moynihan was out of the Subaru and helped to push the car back on to the road it is a demonstration of the speed McNulty was going at that he only lost 40s. Aaron MacHale said. “Everything is fine. We’re trying very hard, just need to find an extra few seconds now.” Denis Cronin told us his tyres went off a little on the last stage. Denis was just a few seconds down on the quickest times.
In Group N Alan Ring worked very hard through that Gortnagane stage especially the fast bit at the end and he managed to set fastest GpN time but Colm Murphy was just 2s slower. Alastair Fisher was over 20s back and he could hardly believe that he was that far down in the time. He felt he had a good stage. Sean Flanagan is now on a total of 54.16.7 and he said he is getting more used to his hired GpN Lancer but that is not really coming through in the times so far.
More news from the Gortnagane stage is that there have been a couple of fairly big accidents. Martin McGee was right in the hunt in the National Rally but his Escort has gone off the road following a big jump and there could be a fair bit of damage done. Adrian Hetherington was making a real charge for Wesley Patterson’s lead but he has put his Escort off on a square left corner. Wesley Patterson still leads the Nationals from Fergus O’Meara with Leonard Downey 3rd, all in Mk2 Escorts. Vincent O’Shea is 4th in his Escort Cosworth and Gary Reidy 5th in his Mk2 Escort. Fergus O’Meara’s co driver Liam Brennan told us they had a very lucky escape when they clipped a stone at over 100mph and a back tyre blew. They lost almost a minute in the incident.
In the Fiesta Sporting Trophy Stephen Wright who is running back the field a little at No.69 now leads from Craig Breen. Breen is querying an earlier stage time and if this is resolved he should then lead. Desi Henry would appear to be now up into 3rd. Craig Breen came across two cows in stage 3 and lost a few seconds. Mark Donnelly did lead earlier but ran wide on a corner in stage 4 and bent the wishbone and rear beam. This should be changed at service now. Shane Buckley was in the hunt for the Fiesta lead but his Fiesta has gone off the road in stage 6.
Kevin O’Donoghue has retired his Escort with a broken half shaft and Willie Power’s Darrian has stopped with a broken hub. Some class leaders after stage 6 include: Daragh O’Riordan leads cl.6 in his Clio S1600: Dave Randles leads cl.7
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (with thanks to Daphne Millar and Moss O’Conaill for the coffee and treats at the end SS4)
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