UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 10 SAMS CROSS
1st (2) Tim McNulty/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 1.29.32.9
2nd (4) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (Impreza WRC) 1.30.32.6
3rd (3) John Dalton/Gwynfor Jones (Darrian) 1.31.57.1
4th (10) Daragh O'Riordan/Tony McDaid (Impreza WRC) 1.33.51.1
5th (11) Bob Fowden/Jerry Hynes (Impreza) 1.36.08.7
6th (14) Sean Flanagan/Liam Brennan (Impreza N) 1.36.18.5
7th (20) Ed O'Callaghan/Ger Clancy (Escort) 1.36.25.1
8th (15) Washington James/Llinos J. -Davies (Darrian) 1.36.37.2
9th (36) Damien McCarthy/Eamonn Hayes (Civic) 1.37.12.3
10th (16) Adrian Hetherington/Gary Nolan (Escort) 1.37.41.5
It was Denis Cronin’s turn to be fastest through stage 10, Sam’s Cross, by 3s from Daragh O’Riordan with Tim McNulty a further second back. Although lying 3rd overall John Dalton did not come into the equation on that Sam’s Cross stage and he said it was one of those roads that doesn’t suit the Darrian. John was almost 20s down on Cronin. Tim McNulty said all is well with his car but he felt the tyre choice wasn’t quite right. However, nearly all the drivers said the road was like ice so maybe there would have been no tyre really suitable. Denis Cronin said his Subaru was all over the place. Daragh O’Riordan reckoned he was on the wrong tyres as well. Daragh is a wise head on young shoulders though and he reckoned that the intermediate tyres that he was on were not right, but then slicks wouldn’t have been right either.
Brian O’Mahony in his Clio S1600 set two very respectable times on those opening 2 stages and he is edging towards the top 10. Tomas Davies dropped from 10th to 11th when his Escort overshot in stage 10. Three times former winner Bob Fowden made a bit of a push through those 2 stages and moved from 7th to 5th. Adrian Hetherington was another making a push this morning in his bid to be best Escort but Ed O’Callaghan still had the edge on stage times.
Sean Flanagan came into service with tape hanging from the back of his GpN Impreza but he lost no time and he has a very comfortable lead in GpN. Sean and his co driver Liam Brennan were laughing about the tape dangling from the back of the Subaru and joked. “That will wind up our engineer Cashman!” Brian O’Keefe/Derek Power are 2nd in GpN, their Impreza lying just inside the top 20. Anthony Neville/Brian Synott are 3rd GpN in their Subaru.
Further stories from stage 10 include. Washington James had a sin in his Darrian and lost a few seconds. Damien McCarthy in the cl.11 leading Civic decided to back off very slightly to try and save the gearbox. David Guest picked too soft a tyre for the rear of his Civic and had a few big moments. Leonard Downey’s Escort suffered a warped brake disc and is causing a vibration through the car. Leonard was in the top 15 overnight. John Buttimer is still going strong in his GpA Subaru and is lying inside the top 20 just ahead of Fintan Canty.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
(Our thanks to Kieran O’Callaghan & Kevin O’Driscoll)
