There is certainly a fantastic race for the lead on this Circuit of Ireland with Derek McGarrity having led through the first 2 stages and then Kenny McKinstry surging to the front through stage 3. That third stage between Markethill and Newtownhamilton is slightly out of character with most of the roads on the rally in that it is very narrow and gravelly, almost like a lane but it is 8.96 miles long. When McKinstry finished the stage showing fastest time he said. “The stage probably suits this car but we might struggle tomorrow on the faster stages. The only way to tackle that stage really is with full attack”. Derek McGarrity said. “My car is not working well on that narrow bumpy stuff, it seems to be bouncing although it is good on the high speed sections. I can go faster but with no testing I was being careful on the gravel. Third placed Kevin Barrett reported a problem with his Subaru from the first junction on the 2nd stage, his Subaru became very wayward under braking. Kevin reckons that there could be one of the drive shafts broken and said. “Its not nice”.
Fastest Group N through that 3rd stage was Neil McCance, his Lancer stopped the clock 9s up on Donagh Kelly. This moved into the GpN lead and he commented. “That’s the toughest stage in the rally and I reckoned it was the place to go for it”. Donagh Kelly’s co driver Kevin Flanagan told us. “We overshot through a square left square right junction, burst through the tape and made a real Mark Higgins recovery”. Kevin went on to say. “Apart from that we are taking no chances”. Garry Jennings has not driven a GpN car since last year in Cavan and he is up to 3rd in the category. Brendan Cumiskey is 4th and Sam Moffett 5th. Moffett was a little disappointed when he came into service and he said. “I thought I was going hard but I’m going nowhere!” However, that is far from the truth, there is still a lot of rallying to be done on this Circuit. Alan Ring reckons he is not hanging about and he is down in 11th o/a with Mark Donnelly 12th. Phillip Morrow had led GpN after the 1st stage but he dropped over a minute in stage 2 when his Lancer’s fuel pump stopped working. Phillip was able to jump out and open the boot and switch to the spare pump, but that of course cost time.
Wesley Patterson is the fastest of the Mk2 Escorts so far and that is despite a front brake locking. Wesley is going to try different tyres this time to see if that helps. Phi Collins is 2nd Escort, the Hereford man said. “It’s a hot pace out there but we’re going well”. John Dalton in the Darrian had a couple of spins in stage 3 and has slipped to 13th o/a. Steve Perez has had a new gear stick fitted to the VK Energy Stratos and is going to perform “OO” duties. News coming in that Stuart Biggerstaff’s Subaru has stopped in SS3. This is unofficial. More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
