Nationals: 1st Wesley Patterson – 1:23.55.0, 2nd Rodney Wilton – 1:23.57.4, 3rd Manus Kelly – 1:24.17.8, 4th Gary McPhillips – 1:24:28.7 (All in Escorts) 5th Maurice Moffett (Starlet) – 1:25.56.2, 6th Daniel McKenna – 1:26.37.2
Through the Knockalla and Garrygort stages Gareth MacHale in his Focus WRC set a scorching pace, 8s up on his nearest pursuer Eugene Donnelly and just under a second faster than Eamon Boland through SS12, Garrygort. Gareth comments here at service in, “I felt I had to push through Knockalla because I’ve got wiped in Garrygort over the past 3 years. Knockalla for me is a bit like Fisher’s Fanad and my Dad’s Knockalla!” Eamon Boland, “We just kept it tidy enough” (Well it’s better than not a bother!)
Eugene Donnelly recounted a major incident on the Knockalla Stage after the stage leaves the main road and heads up towards the big jumps, Eugene said, “The car stepped out at about 120 miles an hour. I had it marked as a flat 3 right, and that is what it should have been. Then at the start of Garrygort, the gear-shift failed, I had to go onto manual and then it came back mid way through the stage. I don’t understand it, the pressures are all fine in the hydraulics, we’ll have to get into the brain. I’m really disappointed. It was my time to push!”
Tim McNulty in 4th place tells us that one of his front struts in his Subaru has lost all it’s gas and is just not working and also the engine is also giving anti-lag difficulties. Sean Devine in 5th is driving his own rally in a way now, no chance of catching the drivers in front. Sean also had a major moment with his Subaru’s anti-lag at the start of Knockalla.
PJ McDermott joked after SS12, “I’m like a tiger, just creeping up on them!” Seamus Leonard in 7th and leading GpN found his tyres going off. Daniel Doherty in 8th has lost a little bit of heart following his delays. Shaun Gallagher is now 2nd in GpN but his times are just shy of Leonard’s and he is making no impression on the lead.
In the modified section, Manus Kelly was fastest of the Escorts through both Knockalla and Garrygort. When Maurice Moffett looked at the times of the cars in front, the Monaghan man said, “These boys need to change their pills!”
In the Fiesta Sporting Trophy, Craig Breen leads Shane Buckley by 30s after SS12 with Robert Barrable a further 17s in arrears and young Stephen Wright in 4th. Interestingly, Buckley was 6s faster that Breen through Garrygort so the young Waterford man isn’t getting it all his own way.
In Ypres, Kris Meeke has moved into the lead after SS11, Peugeot teamate Freddy Loix now 4.7s adrift whilst Kopecky is still in 3rd, 10.2s behind the lead with 5 stages remaining.
More news later – Brian and Michael Patterson plus Ciara Conlan – Come back Liz, all is forgiven!
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