Through the very fast opening Sunday stage, Shanera, Tim McNulty was fastest on 7m30s. Denis Cronin and Aaron MacHale were joint 2nd fastest on 7.33.0. Alastair Fisher was next up on 7.36.0. Conditions at stage finish were dry but at the start they were wet so just like day 1 tyre choice for the drivers was something of a lottery. Tim McNulty commented at stage finish. “We took no chances”. Denis Cronin said his tyres went off towards the finish. Craig Breen in the Fiesta S2000 was down a few seconds and he said that he went for the handbrake on a hairpin, it didn’t work properly and he ended up doing a 3 point turn. Colm Murphy in the GpN Impreza said he missed a few gears during the stage and his time was 15s down on Fisher.
Phil Collins leads the National Rally but he dropped 6s to Barry Meade in that Shanera test. Phil said. “We had two serious over shoots. I was trying too hard and the notes were very ambitious in places”. Barry Meade, a man of few words, just said. “Very fine run”. Ed O’Callaghan is lying 3rd in the Nationals. Vincent O’Shea in his Escort Cosworth is 4th. Washington James in the Darrian had a good run this morning to hold 5th. Darren McCarthy is 6th and leads cl.11 in his Civic. We mentioned that Darren was in gearbox troubles yesterday and was thinking of pulling out of the rally. He decided then to change the gearbox, was a bit reluctant as it is not his own box!
Eamonn Daly is lying 4th in group N in the main rally and he was another with an overshoot this morning. Brian O’Mahony in the Clio reckoned he should have picked a harder compound tyre for that fast Shanera test. Lying just outside the top 10 of the main rally: Marty McCormack is 11th and leading the Citroen Racing Trophy. Marty’s C2R2 Max was 1s faster through Shanera than the hard charging Robert Barrable in his Citroen. Shane Buckley is 3rd in the Citroens, 15th o/a and Shane’s power steering belt came adrift on that opening stage. Danny McBride is now 13th in his Lancer and Aidan Bourke 14th also in a Lancer. Aidan suffered an overshoot this morning and dropped a few seconds.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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