|
|
| |
| Lurgan Park Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.4 - After SS5 - Saturday @ 14:14:29 |
| |
|
RALLY NEWS NO.4 Lurgan Park/Saturday 2.20
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 5
1st (2) Kenny McKinstry/John Skinner (Impreza WRC) 8.44.0
2nd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Andrew Mullan (Fabia WRC) 8.50.5
3rd (3) Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Impreza WRC) 8.55.8
4th (5) Darren Gass/Connor McCloskey (Impreza WRC) 8.57.8
5th (8) Glenn Allen/Kieran McCracken (Corolla WRC) 9.05.1
6th (9) Mark Doyle/Mairead Doyle (Celica GT4) 9.16.8
7th (33) Wesley Patterson/Ivor Scott (Escort) 9.23.6
8th (17) Alan Carmichael/Ivor Lamont (Impreza WRC) 9.29.9
9th (11) John McKeown/Tommy Speers (Esc.Cos) 9.30.6
(13) Raymond Johnson/Rodney Hicks (Lancer N) 9.30.6
Eugene Donnelly was 4.5s down on Kenny McKinstry at the half way point on this Orchard Motorsport Lurgan Park Rally. It looked just about possible for 4 times Tarmac Champion Donnelly to make some impression on McKinstry, but that plan went awry for Eugene in stage 5. Once again the roads were drying and Eugene went for a hard compound slick tyre but he over-cooked it on 2 different spots and his Fabia went whistling across the grass which is not the quickest way! Eugene said. “Yes, off the road twice.” His co driver Andrew Mullan added. “I thought we were going for the ploughing championship. And he knocked the mirror off and flattened a couple of stakes!” When Kenny McKinstry came in he said of his run. “Not fantastic, but OK.” Kenny also said. “I think Eugene straight-lined the last chicane which would have got him a couple of seconds back”.
Looking back a little to stage 4 Eugene Donnelly was fastest there and Kenny said about losing the second to Donnelly. “We were just a bit ragged in about 4 places, lost a little bit of momentum”. Derek McGarrity equalled McKinstry’s time through that 4th stage and was just a fraction slower through stage 5 and Derek said the only real difference was that he had switched to a harder compound tyre. He was only half joking when he said. “Sure you know I’ve no real experience of this game!” Darren Gass maintains his 4th place and said. “We were very messy over the loose”.
There was no changes with 5th and 6th while Wesley Patterson maintained his great run to hold on to 7th although he lost a couple of seconds in stage 4 when he got caught out in the heavy rain. Alan Carmichael admitted to getting very sideways on the gravel round towards the golf club section but set a good time through stage 5. Alan Mackay spun his Lancer in stage 4 and was a bit cautious through 5. Alan was back in approximately 30th position. Billy McClelland has dropped just outside the leaderboard, the times just not flowing the way there were. John McGlaughlin was just fastest in the GpN category through 5 so there is a real race between John and Raymond Johnson for GpN supremacy, just 1.3s separating the 2 now. Hugh O’Brien, yes, that Hugh O’Brien running at No.31 in his Escort, managed to get going again following a problem with the Escort flywheel coming loose. He missed a stage, dropped the box out of the Escort, tightened everything up and he’s flying again!
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL
|
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
|
