Conditions were very cold but very dry on the opening Coolcross stage and as can be seen above Gareth MacHale led the rally after the opening stage but by just 0.3s from Eamonn Boland with Tim McNulty a further 6s adrift. Tarmac Championship leader Eugene Donnelly did not seem happy at stage finish and said that his Fabia was down on power and there seemed to be a fault in the launch control or anti lag. Surprisingly Gareth MacHale’s co driver Brian Murphy felt that they didn’t have such a great run that their Focus seemed just a little out of balance. Eamonn Boland as ever was fairly non committal but reported no problems. Daniel Doherty in 5th place said. “Just bedding in”. Daniel and Michael, although on their home patch here fornenst Carndonagh, have not done a rally since last year’s Donegal so it is remarkable that they have switched on to the pace so quickly. Aaron MacHale commented at stage finish. “I wasn’t aggressive enough”. Glenn Allen is another who hasn’t been in a rally car for quite a while and he said. “Scared the daylights out of myself”.
Shaun Gallagher was the first on the GpN cars through the stage and he reckoned that his Lancer was a bit rolly, not getting a lot of grip. Shaun’s time was 7.29.1. Seamus Leonard reported a huge moment on the big jump[ near the near of the stage. He took it absolutely flat out and his Lancer stepped out and had a major brush with the undergrowth. Garry Jennings, although he leads GpN at the moment, felt his brake pedal to be a little soft. Alastair Fisher said he had a bad feeling at the back of his Lancer but otherwise OK and really he set a great time having had so little experience of the car and the Donegal Rally.
David Bogie was shaking at stage finish and said. “This Metro takes some hanging on to”. David also reported a very big moment at the jump at the end of the stage. Some more times coming in: Donagh Kelly 7.33.4: Eugene Ferry 7.34: Callum Duffy from the Isle of Mull and Maurice Moffett both recorded 7.36. Phillip Shaw in the BMW crawled through the last part of stage 1 holding up some other drivers slightly and his BMW is now stopped on a road section with possible differential trouble.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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