UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 7 Belleville
1st (1) Gareth MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 56.51.2
2nd (9) Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts (Fiesta S2000) 57.56.0
3rd (2) Tim McNulty/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 58.08.6
4th (4) Aaron MacHale/Eugene O'Donnell (Focus WRC) 58.20.4
5th (7) Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 58.28.5
6th (6) Kevin Barrett/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 1.00.00.2
7th (29) Sean Flanagan/Brian Duggan (Lancer N) 1.01.30.7
8th (14) Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Lancer N) 1.01.36.2
9th (15) Jer O'Donovan/Sean Hayde (Impreza N) 1.01.38.4
10th (10) Mike Bird/Kevin Keane (Impreza WRC) 1.01.59.1
NATIONALS: 1st Daniel McKenna/Andrew Grennan (Escort) 59.37.7: 2nd Barry Meade/John Hickey (Escort) 1.01.23.0: 3rd Pat Kelly/Noel Lambert (Impreza) 1.03.26.0
Following the puncture on his Impreza in stage 6 Tim McNulty had a real determined look about him going into stage 7 and his time was over 7s faster than Gareth MacHale. Waterford/Kilkenny youngster Craig Breen was a further 7s down. Gareth commented at stage finish outside Monivea. “The car feels good, we’re not pushing too hard. Anywhere where I have slippy in the notes I’m taking it handy. We’ll make more of a push tomorrow if need be”. Tim McNulty had his maximum attack face on and was saying nothing. Craig Breen in the Fiesta S2000 reported all well. Similarly Aaron MacHale commented about the stage. “I’m pleased with that time. We had a good run”.
Kevin Barrett who switched to Pirelli tyres for his Subaru said. “The tyre testing is over now, time to get serious”. Alastair Fisher remarked. “We had no problems but really I can’t go much harder in that stage. Looking at Keith Cronin’s time for this morning he must have been flying”. Alan Ring said he is at last getting into the groove. Mike Bird has the brakes sorted in his Subaru and he has definitely speeded up. Andrew Bushe has changed the suspension settings again on his Citroen C2 and although the car is behaving better over the jumps Andrew is still having trouble with traction and reckons that in overall terms the suspension is too hard.
In the National section Daniel McKenna’s times, if they were slotted into the main rally results, would be good enough for 6th o/a. Daniel commented. “I’m finding it slippy enough and hard to get traction but we’re going alright”. His closest National rival, Barry Meade, e, has moved to a different type of tyre and his times are a bit closer to Daniel’s. However Daniel still has a massive lead in the Nationals. Pat Kelly is back up to 3rd in the category having lost some time when his Subaru developed centre differential problems. Marty McCormack has lost a couple of seconds to Conor Harvey to let Conor in his Civic into 11th o/a. Marty still leads the Citroen Racing Trophy C2R2s but is now being shown on official results with a 60s penalty which has moved him back to 15th place. Robert Barrable is in 16th and lying 2nd in the C2R2s. Tom Flaherty is 4th in the Nationals in his Escort and he said. “Tis backwards we’re going!” Sam Moffett is having a reasonable run in his GpN Lancer but lost a wee bit of time when the car went into “forest mode”. Peter Wilson also dropped some time when his Civic lost 4th gear. Columba Heena is contemplating withdrawing his Twin Cam Corolla because of a broken exhaust manifold. Mervyn Wedlock said he is having a ball in his Mk2, he lost a few seconds when he clipped a stone in stage 6. David Quigley/Des Sherlock continue to lead their class and said. “The car just won’t go any harder”. Paul Curley in the Civic is 2nd in that class 1. Ray Cunningham slid his Mini Cooper off the road on a K left. He managed to get going but Martin Ward in his Manta leads the Historics.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL www.rallynews.net
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