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| Sligo Stages Rally 2009 |
| RALLY NEWS No.4 - After SS4 - Sunday @ 14:42:46 |
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Rally News No,4 End of Stage Four Lurganboy Village Sun 2.20pm
Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Four
1st (1) Patrick Elliot/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 38.59
2nd (2) Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 38.28
= (3) Kevin Barrrett/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 38.28
4th (4) Melvyn Evans/Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) 39.59
5th (6) Garry Jennings/David Moynihan (Evo) 41.01
6th (7) Kevin Kelleher/Alistair Wylie (Lancer N) 41.31
7th (15) John Cairns/James Cairns (Impreza) 41.37
8th (10) Eamonn Daly/Paddy Robinson (Lancer N) 42.18
9th (17) Dominic McLoughlin/Stephen McLoughlin (205 RWD) 42.42
10th (23) Pat Kirk/Peter Ward (Lancer N) 42.54
11th (12) Paul Kiely/Pat McSharry (Lancer N) 42.55
12th (16) Russell Woods/Martin Byrne (Escort) 42.58
With the weather remaining unsettled, one minute it is dry and warm the next minute a heavy shower can blow in off the Atlantic making conditions and tyre choice unpredictable. Patrick Elliott was fastest again on the second run over the Gurteen Stage along the lakeside of Glencar Lough. Elliott was three seconds faster than Niall Maguire while Kevin Barrett and Melvyn Evans both tied for third fastest, five seconds down on Maguire. Rally leader Patrick Elliott reckoned he had a good run while Niall Maguire was wiping the sweat from his brow and told us that he had worked hard in the stage but had gone for a soft compound tyre which may be a bit of a compromise over the whole loop of three stages. That effort was enough to move Maguire up to joint second with Kevin Barrett.
Garry Jennings was another driver to go with the soft compound option and Garry told us at the stage finish “I picked the soft tyre, should be good for this stage, I have two hard slicks in the boot and I am going to switch them over before we go into the next stage”. Kevin Kelleher who is currently second in GpN went for the opposite tyre, a hard compound and Kevin said “I chose a hard slick, it was no good in the middle of the stage, up the narrow guttery stuff, it was really hairy, but on the rest of the stage it worked fine”. Interestingly both Jennings and kelleher set an equal time of 10.54 for the stage. Eamon Daly dropped back after sliding off on a very slippy square left, loosing over twenty seconds to the GpN leaders. Paul Kiely seemed to breath a sigh of relief when he got the Gulf / MET Lancer Evo 10 into the finish of stage four and when asked how things were going he just quipped “well at least I am still here”.
Russell Woods continues to set the pace in the 2wd category despite his Escort still struggling with a misfire, Russell said at the stage finish “it is still missing but we are working on it, the best way to get around it is just to keep pulling gears”. Dominic McLoughlin still leads the 2wd race but dropped ten seconds to Woods in Stage four in the Mullan and McLoughlin backed 205. John Cairns still holds seventh but is starting to loose a bit of ground to the leading GpN cars in his older Impreza. Anthony Cairns is still going well in his GpN Version and set a time of 11.13 over stage four compared to Paul Kiely on 11.24 and Eamon Daly on 11.16. Victor Hunter is still going hard but his Escort is making some terrible noises in the gearbox department, Victor set a time of 11.30 compared to Brian Brogan 11.33 and Ronan Curley 11,42 all just outside the leaderboard.
More News Later …. Michael & Zoe Patterson
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