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| Monaghan Stages Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.5 - After SS6 - Sunday @ 14:50:53 |
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Rally News No.5 Service Regroup Sunday 2.45pm
Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Six
1st (1)Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 55.16
2nd (3) Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Impreza WRC) 55.33
3rd (4) Melvyn Evans/Patrick Walsh (Impreza WRC) 55.40
4th (5) Gary McPhillips/Mark Tierney (Escort Mk2) 56.33
5th (9) Rodney Wilton /Conor McMahon (Escort) 57.05
6th (8) Manus Kelly/Donal Barrett (Escort Mk2) 57.17
7th (11) John Cairns/James Cairns (Impreza) 57.47
8th (19) Danny MacBride / Ambrose Given (Lancer N) 58.28
9th (15) Damien Gallagher/Paul Garry (Escort Mk2) 58.37
10th (34) Eugene Ferry / Derek Heena (Escort Mk2) 58.45
11th (46) Sam Moffett / Domhnall Lennon (Lancer N) 58.49
12th (14) Seamus O’Connell/ Sean Magee (Escort Mk2) 59.02
= (16) Brian Brogan/Damien McGettigan (Escort Mk2) 59.02
As the leading drivers came into service the main talking point was the heavy rain shower that affected stage six for about half of the stage. Derek McGarrity is really piling on the pressure and took another nine seconds from rally leader Niall Maguire over stage six. McGarrity reckoned he had chosen the perfect tyre and was confident that he can do a bit more over the final loop of three stages. Melvyn Evans was looking concerned as he waited to go into service and told us “I had a big moment in there – the car snapped left into a bank then snapped right into a bank and through it all we have damaged the steering”. The Welshman dropped twelve seconds to McGarrity on stage six and previously six on stage five.
Gary McPhillips changed the plugs on his Escort between stages four and five and reckoned it did make a big difference and he isn’t loosing as much time as before but matching Manus Kelly and Rodney Wilton who lye just behind him. Rodney Wilton described his run through stage six as “we just floated through that one” and like most drivers they were running on cut slicks. Not caught out was John Cairns who chose an intermediate for GpA Subaru 555 and he is feeling much happier with the car now after earlier power worries have been traced to a faulty water injection system.
Adrian Hetherington was pushing his Escort through the service in control after his earlier repaired clutch completely failed in stage six and as a consequence has damaged the gear box when asked if it could be fixed, Adrian quipped “I think we have a clutch and maybe a gear box if we can change those in time we should be okay”. Seamus O’Connell told us how his Escort’s tyres went off after the heavy rain and the car was almost worse to drive, the tyres only getting back up to temperature by the end of the stage. John O’Donnell is reportedly upside down in a field on the last corner in stage five after running strongly all morning. Victor Hunter is just off the Leaderboard but has broken the exhaust manifold in his Escort.
In GpN Danny MacBride still leads but Sam Moffett was another to choose intermediate tyres for that loop and he pulled a few seconds back over stages five and six. Sam is much happier with the car but he did have to back off a bit earlier when he thought the centre diff had maybe broken but it turned out to be just the exhaust falling down. Trevor Bustard dropped over a minute with a puncture in stage six. More News Later Michael & Zoë Patterson
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