Bishopscourt Race Circuit continues to bask in sunshine as
Derek McGarrity and Sean Topping extended their lead to 12.6 seconds after the
third stage.
“We used a harder tyre for that stage and it made a
big, big improvement,” McGarrity said after setting the pace by a little
over one second from Mark Massey and Eathan McColgan. “We’re going to
stiffen the car a bit in service to make it a bit better.”
Earlier we reported that championship leader, Stephen
Wright, was in trouble with suspected differential problems. His service crew
have managed to work around the issue so Wright is still in the rally and
holding seventh overall.
“We resolved the problem but it means I have no
handbrake,” Wright said. “It’s a bit of a problem for me but the car
is a whole lot better than what it was.”
“There’s a cylinder that disconnects the drive to the
rear wheels when you pull the handbrake and it had seized,” he explained.
“We were contending with that for the first two stages and I wasn’t really
absorbing the track so I feel that’s the first stage that I’ve started to get
to grips with it.”
Derek McGeehan admitted to dropping a couple of seconds as a
result of “my own wee mistakes” but he still holds second overall,
four seconds ahead of Massey who found a lot more grip after fitting slick
tyres. He dislodged Paul Barrett from fourth position who lost around 10
seconds during the stage.
“The track’s a lot drier,” Barrett said.
“It’s still tricky and slippy in the concrete section but I’m enjoying
it.”
Stuart Biggerstaff has finally found his mojo and set third
fastest time, just 1.5s slower than rally leader McGarrity. “That’s a bit
more like it!” a delighted Stuart said at the stage finish. He’s now fifth
overall ahead of Kenny McKinstry.
Neither Kevin Barrett (eight) nor Martin Cairns (10th) had
any dramas to report but Nigel Feeney lost a lot of time with a spin in his
Mini WRC and holds ninth overall.
James Kennedy was still using ‘wet’ tyres and reckoned it
was time to move to a harder tyre as the track continues to dry. Rival John
Devlin was over three seconds quicker on the stage, leaving four seconds
between the crews in the battle for the two-wheel drive category.
Fintan McGrady echoed Kennedy’s sentiments and reckoned it
was time to change his tyres to a more suitable compound. Drew Stewart seemed a
little bit concerned about his Escort as he arrived at the finish. His engine
seemed to be revving quite high and when asked if everything was OK, he just
said “I think so”.
Jonny Greer went off the track in his GT86 and was stuck on
grass for over a minute.
“The grass was that wet we couldn’t get going
again,” Greer explained. “I just couldn’t get traction so we were
stuck for about a minute and a half.”
Alastair Cochrane’s appeared to fix his misfire issues but
four corners before the finish of stage three, his car started misbehaving
again and he had a big spin. Johno Doogan also lost time with another spin, as
did James Leckey who damaged his driver’s door in the process.
“I just had a little bit of overexcitement,”
Leckey explained. “I put new tyres on the back and they weren’t quite
scrubbed in.”
Jonny Morrow had his first clean stage of the rally and had
a beaming smile on his face at the stage finish. Gary Rodgers had a couple of
“half spins” while Colm McFall spun his Evo. He also explained that
Brian McFall had to pull out of the rally with overheating issues while Kyle
White reckoned he should swap his car for a motorbike!
“I’m never on four wheels!” White laughed while
his navigator shook his head. “I’m cutting corners everywhere to try and
find time. I think we got a wrong time earlier today so we have about 20
seconds to find.”
Jamie Grant reported losing time when he caught cars on
stages one and two but had a clean run through stage three while Matthew
McGaffin seems to have fixed a misfire that he struggled with on stages one and
two.
David Riddles is in a bit of bother with his Escort. He’s
lost second gear, making the slower corners hard going.
“I’m having to go straight from third gear to first,”
Riddles explained. “Then accelerating out of the corners, I’m having to
rev the car really high before putting it into third. It’s hard work but we’re
enjoying the car apart from that. I think it’s a selector rather than the gear
so it will be good if we can get it sorted.”
Chris McGurk has lost time with a few excursions off the
track and Seamus Morris is enjoying his run in the Darrian. He admitted that
“the jumps are all new to me” while Roy Haslett said he was happier
now that the track had dried out a bit.
Further down the order, Gerard Neeson’s Peugeot 106 has
stopped during stage three and is awaiting to be towed back to service.
Meanwhile, Sam Adams and Beth Cochrane survived a spin over the finish line!
There’s now a short lunch break before crews return to
action for stage four. Results are available from www.rallyscore.net.
Jonathan
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