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| Mourne Stages Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.4 - After SS4 - Saturday @ 13:56:17 |
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RallyNews No.4 Carnbane Ind. Estate Saturday 1.45pm
Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage 4
1st (1) Darren Gass/Sean Mullaly (Impreza WRC) 29.56
2nd (2) John McGlaughlin/Crawford Henderson (Lancer N) 30.20
3rd (17) Stuart Biggerstaff/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 30.59
4th (4) Camillus Bradley/Danny O’Neill (Escort Mk2) 31.01
5th (18) Mark Donnelly/Stephen O’Hanlon (Lancer N) 31.07
6th (5) Raymond Johnston/Rodney Hicks (Lancer N) 31.19
7th (12) David Armstrong/John Roland (Escort MK2) 31.22
8th (89) Brendan Cumiskey/Ronan O’Kane (Lancer Evo 9) 31.26
9th (8) Damien Toner/Paddy McCague (Escort Mk2) 31.28
10th (92) Alastair Cochrane/Gary McElhinney (Escort MK2) 31.30
11th (14) Fintan McGrady/Mark Hannah (Escort Mk2) 31.35
= (20) Trevor Ferguson/David McIlroy (Impreza N) 31.35
Rally leader Darren Gass admits to having a good run but steady over the Slieve Gullion stage while co driver Sean Mullaly has jarred his back after the Impreza bottomed out over a big jump towards the finish of the stage. John McGlaughlin was only three seconds slower than Gass in his GpN Lancer, John telling us that they have changed the brain on the car and it has some very different characteristics but more importantly John feels that there is a very long hesitation after you change gear but it is still a lot better than the older unit. George Robinson seems to have retired after earlier gear box problems with his Impreza and we can only assume the two are related. Stuart Biggerstaff in third place is definitely finding some good speed and had another good run over Slieve Gullion, the young Kinallen driver is just loving today’s rallying and his smile tells its own story.
Raymond Johnston has been struggling with suspension woes and stiffened his Lancer up in service and feels the car is a bit better but didn’t find any extra time. Brendan Cumiskey is still having centre diff problems and reckons they can’t fix it so he will just have to drive round the problem. Trevor Ferguson is also continuing to have gear box problems with no fifth gear and his team have blocked off reverse so at least he can change gear with more confidence now, and not taking the chance of any further damage. Clive Kilpatrick discovered that a turbo pipe had come loose on his older Lancer, that is now fixed but he lost the intercom on stage four while rally sponsor Rory Byrne despite still being down on power feels things are getting a little better.
In the 2wd race Camillus Bradley is now putting on a bit of a master class in his distinctive Escort. Camillus set a time of 8.05 over stage four, third fastest overall, and Camillus reckoned that it was almost a perfect run. Damien Toner had no intercom for the stage and lost a few seconds while Drew Stuart reckons his alternator wires are just hanging on by a thread. Norman Armstrong is stopped in Gullion with a suspected broken half shaft, Davy Armstrong said he got the thumbs up as he drove past and Davy also reported that he bled the brakes in service and that seems to have done the trick. Finton McGrady had a real good time of 8.13 in stage four but his Escort is starting to suffer from fuel pump problems. Colm McFall has a broken draft shaft on his Escort Cosworth but is going to try to carry on. Alaistair Cochrane is running way down the field and had a cracking time over Gullion of 8.08 but the Co Antrim farmer did not get a recee and has only seen the stages from the safety DVD, it was more important to make sure the cows were milked! More News Later Michael & Zoe Patterson
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