The first day of Rally Ireland, jointly sponsored by Fáilte Ireland and the Northern Ireland Events Company, has come to a close with England’s Matthew Wilson (Ford Focus WRC) at the head of the leaderboard.
He set the fastest time on stage five, Glenboy 2, a staggering 18 seconds quicker than his nearest rival, and was again quickest on the day’s final stage, Isle of Innishfree Westerly.
Speaking from the event headquarters at Sligo’s Clarion Hotel, the rally leader commented: “In the last few stages we managed to extend our lead quite a bit, our tyre choices made the difference. The car has gone well for us all day. Today’s been really fantastic, it has been dry. We’ve got a reasonable lead, but anything can happen tomorrow. The stages ran well, there were no problems, no delays, all the stages have been fantastic, I really enjoyed them.”
Eamonn Boland (Ford Focus WRC), the initial leader of the event, holds
second place. He had dropped to third briefly behind Kevin Lynch (Subaru Impreza WRC) but moved ahead again on stage six.
Glen Allen remains in fourth position, two minutes off the pace of the leading trio, but 42 seconds ahead of fifth placed Gareth MacHale. MacHale lost time early in the rally when his Toyota Corolla WRC stalled at a hairpin, but he later climbed steadily up the leaderboard. He lies just 1.7 seconds ahead of Belgium’s Freddy Loix, who is the highest placed competitor using a two wheel drive car.
Sweden's Daniel Carlsson, who drives for Peugeot in the World Championship, holds seventh place overnight and heads the Group N production category comfortably.
After today’s stages, Carlsson said: “There is no reason why
Ireland should not be part of the World Rally Championship.”
Gareth MacHale’s brother, Aaron, who had been holding seventh place, was stopped for five minutes on stage five with mechanical problems, and dropped down the order. Roy White is second in the Group N and eighth overall.
Up to date results are available on the Rally Ireland website,
www.rallyireland.org
Provisional Results after stage 6:
1 Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr, Ford Focus WRC 1:08.55secs
2 Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan, Ford Focus WRC, +53.2secs
3 Kevin Lynch/Allan Harryman, Subaru Impreza WRC, +0.58.5
4 Glen Allen/Damien Connolly, Toyota Corolla WRC, +3.15.3
5 Gareth MacHale/Paul Nagle, Toyota Corolla WRC, +3.58.1
6 Freddy Loix/Robin Buysmans, Suzuki Ignis Super 1600, +3.59.8
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