In a closely fought encounter, Niall Maguire/Paul
McLaughlin won the Adare based Circuit of Munster
Rally, the fourth round of the Dunlop National Rally
Championship.
Posted: June 8, 2004 11:55 PM
At the end of the day's eight stages, they were 6.29
seconds ahead of Subaru WRC of Jim Harrison/Harvey
Bell with early leaders, Patrick Elliott/David
Moynihan completing a Subaru 1-2-3, some 30 seconds
behind. The Group N category was won by the local
Limerick crew of Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Subaru).
A host of top drivers beat the bogey time on the
opening stage near Shanagolden where the Subaru WRC of
Jim Harrison was in trouble with a gearbox problem.
Nevertheless, he too still managed to beat the bogey
time. On the second stage, it was Cavan's, Patrick
Elliott in his right hand drive Subaru WRC that set
the pace. Illustrating that his form in last week's
Cavan Rally wasn't due to local knowledge, the former
Group N national champion took a 3.5 second lead over
Galway's, JJ Fleming (Subaru WRC), who opined that he
was just settling into the pace. A mere 0.5 seconds
in arrears in third place was the Dunlop Championship
leader, Niall Maguire, who had a trouble free run
through both stages.
Having to complete the entire second stage by using
the gear lever and clutch, Harrison's fourth place -
two seconds behind Maguire and six off the leader's
pace - was commendable. Cathal Arthurs was concerned
as smoke entered the cockpit of his Hyundai Accent WRC
as a hard charging Denis Cronin in his Toyota Celica
ST185 slotted into sixth place. Ollie O'Donovan - in
seventh place - lost time when his Subaru lost power
intermittently. The top ten was completed by the
Subaru WRC's of Kevin Lynch and David Armstrong, the
latter debuting the ex-Melvyn car.
In Group N, as expected, local Limerick driver, Colm
Murphy (Subaru) set the pace, he was on the fringe of
the top ten and was some seven seconds ahead of the N9
Subaru of Tadhg Linehan with Willie Fannin (Subaru) a
further four seconds behind. Meanwhile, the leader of
the category in the Dunlop Championship, Gabriel
Martin retired his Mitsubishi.
Elliott lost the lead on the third stage when he
stalled his Subaru and that allowed Maguire seize the
initiative and on arrival at the second service halt,
the Dunlop Championship leader, had a 7.1 second lead
over Jim Harrison, who was stymied by having to use
the manual change in the Subaru WRC. JJ Fleming had a
big overshoot and as a result, slipped to third while
Elliott had to be content with fourth place - the top
four covered by just 11.7 seconds. Smoke continued to
enter the Hyundai of Cathal Arthurs although he did
get through the fourth stage without any incident.
Kevin Lynch reported no problems but a massive
overshoot cost Denis Cronin vital seconds and he
dropped top seventh in a top ten that also featured
David Armstrong, Sean Gallagher and Group N leader,
Colm Murphy. Ollie O'Donovan lost time when his
Subaru cut out on several occasions.
Maguire, Harrison, O'Donovan, Arthurs, Cronin,
Armstrong and Fleming all beat the bogey time on S.S.
5 while Fleming set the pace on S.S 6 where oil
spewing from the Subaru WRC of Kevin Lynch, who
eventually retired, caused problems for the cars that
followed. Fleming, courtesy of his time on S.S. 6,
came into second, 6.9 seconds behind rally leader
Maguire with Harrison in third. Elliott had two
overshoots on S.S. 5 and had some major moments when
his Subaru caught the oil deposits forcing the Cavan
driver ton back off considerably. Arthurs and Cronin
rounded off the top six.
Meanwhile, Sean Gallagher and David Armstrong, two
drivers with new Subaru's, had their own personal
battle with Gallagher holding the edge, albeit by some
four seconds.
There was considerable change in Group N, Colm Murphy
had a comfortable lead after Tadhg Linehan failed to appear the service halt, and Willie Fannin dropped down after an off.
That allowed James
O'Sullivan into contention for top Dunlop points.
On the penultimate stage, Harrison eclipsed Fleming
and moved into second - trailing Maguire by some nine
seconds and 3.6 seconds ahead of Fleming. Another
change to the top of the leader board came when
Arthurs reeled in Elliott for fourth. Arthurs and
Cronin completed the top six. On the final stage,
Maguire did just enough to take victory with Harrison
clipping some 3.4 seconds off the deficit to leave
Maguire's margin of victory at 5.1 seconds. Elliott
posted a stunning time and took a deserved third but
JJ Fleming's fine drive ended in retirement due to a
transmission problem. Cathal Arthurs, who lost
considerable time on the final stage maintained
fourth. Cronin was fifth from Armstrong and George
Tracey in his Peugeot WRC had a few spins en-route to
seventh.
In Group N, Colm Murphy took a comfortable victory
while James O'Sullivan annexed the top points in the
showroom category. Murphy was eighth overall in a top
ten that included the Subaru's of Sean Gallagher and
Kevin Barrett. Ollie O'Donovan's problems continued
all the way to the final stage, he was eleventh.
Non-starters included Adrian McElvaney, Ray Breen and
Andrew Stewart.
1 N. Maguire/P. McLaughlin (Subaru Impreza WRC) 55:30.59
2 J. Harrison/H. Bell (Subaru Impreza WRC) 55:36.88
3 P. Elliott/D. Moynihan (Subaru Impreza WRC) 56:08.69
4 C. Arthurs/J. Kelly (Hyundai Accent WRC) 56:19.13
5 D. Cronin/H. O’Sullivan (Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD) 56:34.74
6 D. Armstrong/B. Kelly (Subaru Impreza WRC) 56:40.09
7 S. Gallagher/P. Nagle (Subaru Impreza WRC)57:14.64
8 G. Tracey/K. Duffy (Peugeot 206 WRC) 57:38.24
9 C. Murphy/G. Loughrey (Subaru Impreza WRX) Gp. N 57:42.77
10 K. Barrett/B. Goodman (Subaru Impreza WRC) 57:51.99
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