On our last RallyNews we reported that Kevin Barrett had slid his Triton Showers Subaru into a ditch and was stuck. He managed to find a farmer with a teleporter to come over the fields and lift the Impreza back on to the road. Unfortunately when he got to service he was just over a minute beyond maximum lateness and is out of the rally. Kevin may join in for the Sunday Run/Super Rally.
Meanwhile stage 3 was pretty treacherous following hail stones and heavy rain and nearly all the top drivers struggled. Interestingly, on the provisional times so far Garry Jennings was fastest on provisional times, 5s up on Alastair Fisher who was 2s ahead of Tim McNulty. Derek McGarrity was a further 13s down on McNulty and Derek said. “I was a passenger in the car in there, massive slides in 5th gear. I was on absolutely the wrong tyre. The only consolation is that Tim was on the same tyre as me!” Gareth MacHale was a very unhappy driver when he got to the end of the stage. His Focus is still misfiring and to add further misery the windscreen was completely misted up. Aaron MacHale reported that his Ford was handling a lot better but he was kicking himself for making a small mistake near the start of the stage when he was wondering what the car would do at the first junction. It caught him unawares when it did the right thing!
A further big story from stage 3 is that Craig Breen’s Fiesta has stopped after an accident. Richard Cathcart did finish the stage but the side of his Impreza was bashed following a slide into a ditch on a medium right. Alan Ring dropped some time when his Lancer suffered a puncture 3 miles from the end. Alan also said that Craig Breen looked like he had been very unlucky, caught out on standing water. Neil McCance felt he had picked the wrong tyre. John McGlaughlin was delighted that his Lancer was back on full song after having the fuel pump changed. Daragh O’Riordan had a good run to maintain his top placing. Sam Moffett reckons the rear diff on his Lancer is getting very noise. Marty McCormack reported the stage to be very dirty. Robert Barrable said there was a lot of mud getting carried out from the verges where the cars had been cutting the corners. Robert was 3s slower than Marty on that stage 3 but still leads the Citroen C2R2 Max category by 3s.
In the National Rally Kenny McKinstry led after the first 2 stages. Donagh Kelly had been 2nd but retired his Focus WRC because of low oil pressure. Enda McNulty, Camillus Bradley and Emma McKinstry were all in the hunt for the top places. Frank Kelly seems to have retired in stage 2.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ & MICHAEL PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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