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| Sligo Stages Rally 2009 |
| RALLY NEWS No.2 - After SS1 - Sunday @ 11:38:27 |
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Rally News No,2 End of Stage One Lurganboy Village Sun 11.00am
Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage One
1st (1) Patrick Elliot/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 10.53
2nd (3) Kevin Barrrett/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 10.59
3rd (2) Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 11.07
4th (4) Melvyn Evans/Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) 11.22
5th (6) Garry Jennings/David Moynihan (Evo) 11.29
6th (15) John Cairns/James Cairns (Impreza) 11.35
7th (7) Kevin Kellaher/Alistair Wylie (Lancer N) 11.41
8th (17) Dominic McLoughlin/Stephen McLoughlin (205 RWD) 11.47
9th (10) Eamonn Daly/Paddy Robinson (Lancer N) 11.48
10th (14) Trevor Bustard/Kenny Bustard (Lancer N) 12.04
11th (24) John Gallagher/Brendan McElhinney (Lancer N) 12.05
12th (12) Paul Kiely/Pat McSharry (Lancer N) 12.07
First on the road was Patrick Elliott who arrived at the end of the daunting 19.92 km Gurteen stage stopping the clocks in 10 minutes 53 that would prove to be the benchmark fastest time. Conditions overnight have been pretty poor with torrential rain leaving the roads as slippy as ice. Patrick reported a trouble free run, no problems with his Impreza but echoing the views of all the drivers when he described how slippy the roads were. Niall Maguire the Dunlop championship leader seemed a bit disappointed to be fourteen seconds slower than Elliott and could only put it down to the difficult conditions. Kevin Barrett was pleased with his run but caught a front wheel somewhere in the stage with no damage to the rim but the endplate on the front spoiler missing. Melvyn Evans set a good time considering it was his first time driving a 12b Impreza in anger but the Welshman was just shaking his head at the stage finish “that was absolutely treacherous – I have never driven on anything quite so slippy”.
The first major retirement appears to be Sean Gallagher who crashed his Subaru near the start of the stage and Garry Jennings told us “it was a four right over crest and Sean went off the road, he got going again but pulled some really huge rocks onto the stage – we had to stop to get through”. Kevin Kelleher had the same problem and was able to tell us that Sean had eventually pulled his stricken Subaru up on the side of the road. Kevin Kelleher got a puncture on the way out to the first stage leaving him with just a slick tyre to put on the back of the car which he felt was very nervy on the stage. Top GpN runner Anthony O’Halloran is reported stopped in the stage while Danny McBride did not start this morning.
John Cairns is right in the hunt in his GpA Subaru but lost a few seconds when he caught John Bustard who was concerned about a rattle in the back of the car. Dominic McLoughlin was considerably faster than anyone in the 2wd category and reported a trouble free run. Russell Woods had a bad misfire in his Escort and did not know if he could get it sorted. Other times from some drivers just off the leaderboard include Pat Kirk on 12.09, Danial Conaghan on 12.11, Victor Hunter and Ronan Curley on 12.15 while Ronan described the conditions as atrocious. More News Later Michael & Zoe Patterson
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