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| Circuit of Munster |
| RALLY NEWS No.2 - End of SS1 - Sunday @ 10:44:09 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.2 End of stage 1/Sunday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 1 Sugar Hill
1st (1) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 6.43
2nd (2) Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 6.44
3rd (3) Kevin Barrett/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 6.48
4th (5) Kevin & Martin Kelleher (Lancer N) 7.00
5th (4) Sean Gallagher/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 7.11
Unfortunately the opening stage was stopped when the sixth car through, Anthony O’Halloran, crashed his Lancer at junction 7. It is believed that Anthony got caught out on gravel, driver and co driver Charlie McEnery both reported to be uninjured. We are led to believe there is very little damage to the car but it would not re-start.
Patrick Elliott was first on the road and at stage finish the National Champion did not appear to be too happy although he was fastest. Patrick told us that the car had stalled at the hairpin and he pointed to one of the many buttons and knobs on the centre console of the dash said that when it is in stage mode this can happen very easily and it is quite difficult on the very slow corners.
Niall Maguire also didn’t seem too happy. He said he felt his Subaru brakes going off a little bit towards stage finish. That first stage, Sugar Hill, is an ultra quick road and the bright sunny conditions this morning were going to lead to very high speeds anyway, so the drivers all seemed pretty tense. Kevin Barrett reported all OK. Maggie McKinstry was at stage finish with a cold wet towel for Kevin and he certainly needed it after that stage!
Sean Gallagher was 4th on the road and his co driver Anthony Nestor told us that they had a spin at the last hairpin and possibly lost as much as 20s. It certainly showed in Sean’s time.
Kevin Kelleher was the first of the GpN drivers and he seemed to have a really good time although we have no other GpN times to compare with as yet. Eamonn Daly was the first driver on Anthony O’Halloran’s accident and he said that up to that point he had been going well, but being a little cautious.
News coming in from Kenny McKinstry at the end of stage 2 is that Patrick Elliott was fastest on 10.07. Niall Maguire 10s down having stalled his Impreza. Kevin Barrett is shown as 33s back but co-driver Sean Mullally reckons they got a time which is 30s out. Sean Gallagher had a good time just 1s down on Maguire. Eamonn Daly was 1s faster than Kevin Kelleher in the race for group N.
Local man Sean Moran and his co driver Con Mulcahy were unfortunately sidelined on the way out to the first stage when their Corolla TC broke its timing belt. We believe they had a new engine fitted for the rally so that is a bit unfortunate. The one bright side to that is that there was one reserve sitting at parc ferme hoping for a run so he should be clear to go.
News from Rally Barbados is that Kris Meeke & Paul Nagle lead overnight from Paul Bird by 21s. Local driver Skeete was giving Kris a race for it but he has crashed out.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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