UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 9 – END OF LEG 1
1st (1) Gareth MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.09.52.1
2nd (2) Eugene Donnelly/Paddy Toner (Fabia WRC) 1.10.28.1
3rd (4) Denis Cronin/Coleman Hurley (Impreza WRC) 1.13.19.2
4th (5) Alastair Fisher/Barry McNulty (Lancer N) 1.13.38.9
5th (12) Daragh O'Riordan/Tony McDaid (Clio) 1.14.30.3
6th (6) Owen Murphy/James O'Brien (Lancer N) 1.16.53.1
NATIONALS/MODIFIEDS
1st (7) Phil Collins/Derek Brannigan (Escort) 1.13.43.9
2nd (15) Barry Meade/Johnny Hickey (Escort) 1.13.51.3
3rd (9) Washington James/Anthony O'Connell (Darrian) 1.14.31.4
4th (10) John O'Donnell/Johnny Baird (Escort) 1.14.40.1
5th (21) Kevin O'Donoghue/Joe O'Leary (Escort) 1.15.56.9
6th (24) Alan Treacy/Bob Fitzgerald (Corolla) 1.18.16.2
Through stages 8 and 9 Gareth MacHale was a couple of seconds faster than Eugene Donnelly on both tests and that has been the story of the day really. Eugene Donnelly who really only to finish in the top 5 to win another Tarmac Championship title, said here at service. “We’ve had a very steady afternoon> I gave it a bit of a push on the last 2 stages and I can tell you Gareth is going hard because we were still a couple of seconds off his time”. Gareth said. “No troubles. We picked a cut slick tyre and the roads were very dry so it wasn’t quite right but it held up well”. Denis Cronin was a solid 3rd through the afternoon stages and he also was a little conservative in his tyre choice.
Alastair Fisher continues to lead Group N and put in a very solid performance through the afternoon. Phil Collins really turned the wick up through the last 3 stages to move back into the lead of the National rally. Phil admitted that it was a big race against Barry Meade with Washington James now coming into the picture. Interestingly, Phil was fractionally quicker than Denis Cronin in his world rally car through stages 7, 8 and 9. John O’Donnell/Johnny Baird, 4th in the Nationals, had 2 spins on the last stage and were happy to make service. Daragh O’Riordan continues to lead cl.6 in the main rally and dropped a few seconds in stage 9 when his tyres decided they had had enough. Robert Barrable/Dermot O’Gorman won the Fiesta section today. Mark Donnelly’s Fiesta incurred a puncture on the last stage before service. Mark said he was braking hard into a hairpin right and a tyre just exploded. Craig Breen already has the Fiesta c/ship won so Mark has ended up as runner up and Paddy Robinson is the winning co-driver. Craig Breen was lying 30th o/a in Rally Spain today but we have reports that his car had some electrical problems and then crashed off the road in stage 10.
Moss Fitzgerald in the white Corolla GT lost a few seconds in stage 9 when he caught up with Mark Nangle’s struggling Impreza. Moss is battling for the lead of class 11. Anthony Neville in the Impreza N14 is still going well although he chose an intermediate tyre which didn’t work well on the drying roads. Jeremy Taylor/Jody Patterson cut a 6 left corner too tight in stage 8 and cracked a rear wheel. They eased off over the following fast section in case they had a puncture but they didn’t. They are now lying 11th o/a.
More news in morning: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
*For SMS results text RALLY ITC to 53030 (Irl) or 60066 (UK): Text STOP to switch off. Cost 30c/25p. Provided by stagetimes.com
