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| Stonethrowers |
| RALLY NEWS No.6 - After SS9 - Sunday @ 17:02:10 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.6 Finish/Clonmel/Sunday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 9 – FINAL STAGE
1st (2) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 1.02.09
2nd (3) Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 1.02.22
3rd (6) Kevin & Martin Kelleher (Lancer N) 1.03.26
4th (5) Garry Jennings/David Moynihan (Lancer N) 1.03.32
5th (12) Dave Weston/Ieuan Thomas (Impreza N) 1.05.31
6th (11) Mike Quinn/Grainne McEnery (Escort) 1.06.43
7th (10) Thomas Fitzmaurice/Fionn Foley (Lancer N) 1.06.47
8th (26) Stephen Cullen/Billy Collins (Impreza N) 1.08.19
9th (18) Andrew Hockridge/Darren Garrod (Citroen C2 Max) 1.08.20
10th (16) Shay Power/Derek Gibbs (Escort) 1.08.39
Patrick Elliott and his co driver Paul Goodman brought their Subaru into Clonmel the worthy winners of this Stonethrowers Rally with Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry 2nd in their Subaru. Kevin Barrett had been 3rd but his Subaru lost most of its gears on the penultimate stage to allow Kevin Kelleher to make a huge charge for the line and just nipped past Garry Jennings, not just for 3rd place o/a but for Group N victory as well. Matthew Wilson was heading for a top 10 place in the new Fiesta but he has crashed off the road in the final stage. The final stage of the rally produced its own share of dramas at the front. Patrick Elliott started the stage with a comfortable 23s lead but 6km into that Russellstown stage at a downhill tight square left Patrick’s Subaru got away from him and the car spun to a halt. It took Patrick ages to extricate the car and then charge on down the stage but he got to the finish all in one piece but reckoned that Maguire would probably have been a lot faster and maybe even have won the rally. Unbeknown to Patrick spectators and possibly a marshal had waved Niall down. He slowed right down and went forward cautiously looking for the “OK” board then speeded up but his concentration was gone and on the next corner his Subaru banged off the road. That delay probably cost Niall the rally. Patrick Elliott commented at the finish. “It was a tough enough day, very changeable conditions and no tyre was right but the rally was very well organised and on time throughout”. In National Championship terms Maguire still leads but when dropped scores are taken into account the advantage is very much Patrick’s and he only needs a couple of 2nd places now to retain his Champion’s title.
In the Group N battle Garry Jennings was able to get his gears fixed and had a real charge over the final stages, but Kevin Kelleher charged even harder to take victory. Kevin had a real drama on the penultimate stage when his Lancer filled up with smoke and he thought the car was on fire. He kept going flat out to the finish of the stage where he discovered that the rear bush in the prop shaft had disintegrated and the prop was flailing about. Mike Quinn got some spanners out of his Escort and along with Garry Jennings very sportingly jury-rigged the prop shaft into place to allow Kevin to finish. Mike Quinn had a brilliant result to finish best 2 wheel drive although he had a few big slides in stage 9 when his Escort’s rear tyres had more or less given up the ghost. Unofficially Tom Walster is 11th o/a and has won Cl.7 in his Clio. Jim McKenna is 12th and has won cl.11 in his Starlet.
Finally for now our thanks to all who helped and supported the RallyNews service. Well done to CoC Willie Walsh and his hard working Tipperary MC team. Thanks also to Dougie Hughes and Aidan Harper for distributing our RallyNews bulletins. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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