NATIONAL: 1st Rodney Wilton 28.07.4: 2nd Manus Kelly 28.13.5: 3rd Wesley Patterson 28.19.3: 4th Gary McPhillips 28.24.2. First 4 all in Escorts: 5th Maurice Moffett (Starlet) 28.40.2:
On the 2nd run over the Coolcross stage which is stage 4 Gareth MacHale was very impressive indeed almost 5s faster than Eugene Donnelly and 7 up on Eamonn Boland. Glenn Allen was unfortunate to break a drive shaft on his Corolla and he dropped over 20s and 2 places on the leaderboard. At stage finish Gareth reported. “We picked a harder compound tyre and I was a bit slow at the start of the stage but then got into the rhythm. Eamonn Boland reported no problems. Eugene Donnelly said his Fabia was back to full health but he had picked too soft a tyre and at the end of the stage he got out of the car and checked the tyres pressures as well. Tim McNulty said his Subaru felt “right” at stage finish having had the suspension hardened at service. Aaron MacHale spoke of a very big moment when his Focus nearly went into the deep ditches past the chicken sheds on the stage. Sean Devine continues to put up good times as he settles down to the rally after a fair lay off.
Group N leader Garry Jennings had new pads fitted to his Lancer at service and he felt that he might have glazed them. Seamus Leonard got over his fright on the first run through that Coolcross stage to set fastest group N time on the 2nd run and oust young Alastair Fisher out of the leaderboard and 11th o/a. Shaun Gallagher is now 12th o/a. Damien Tourish is 13th. Danny McBride 14th: The Doherty brothers Daniel and Michael are lying just outside the top 15 and setting very good times which should bring them on the leaderboard fairly rapidly.
In the National rally Wesley Patterson was fastest of the Escort drivers through stage 4. Wesley’s gearbox change was completed successfully at service but there were still a few things needed wired up to make the read out on the dash function, so Wesley was being slightly careful. Daniel McKenna got his clutch changed in 20 minutes at service and he was lying 11th in the Nationals and leading class 12. It will be interesting to see if Daniel can make up for lost time now he has got the clutch slip cured. We are still waiting for times for the later cars from stage 4 but Paul Barrett in his Focus was into 6th o/a. Martin McGee was 7th and Callum Duffy 8th.
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. Provided by stagetimes.com
