McKinstry leads West Cork Rally
At the conclusion of an exciting first leg of the Quality Hotels West Cork Rally in Clonakilty, former
Tarmac champion, Kenny McKinstry and his co-driver, Sean Mullally, has a 5.6 second advantage over the similar Subaru WRC of Michael Barrable/Dermot O’Gorman.
Eamonn Boland and his co-driver, Damien Morrissey also in a Subaru WRC are third.
The top local crew are Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy, their Toyota Corolla WRC is fifth at the overnight halt.
Having lost the lead after the fifth stage, McKinstry was fastest over the final stages of today’s leg to
gain those precious 5.6 seconds.
Eamonn Boland’s decision to make changes to the suspension proved valuable and he slotted into third ahead of last year’s winner, Melvyn Evans, who took a little time to settle in his latest acquisition.
Subaru’s dominated the top ten but Liam McCarthy managed to interrupt proceedings and overnight he is in fifth place ahead of the Subaru’s of Maurice Gass and Steve Fleck.
The overnight top ten is completed by Phil Collins (Escort), Donal O’Donovan (Toyota Celica) and Denis Cronin (BMW M3).
The major retirements today were Ollie O’Donovan (Subaru) and David Armstrong (Escort WRC).
1. K. McKinstry (Subaru WRC) 55m. 35.6s.
2. M. Barrable (Subaru WRC) 55m. 41.2s.
3. E. Boland (Subaru WRC) 55m. 58.15s.
4. M. Evans (Subaru WRC) 56m. 02.1s.
5. L. McCarthy (Toyota Corolla WRC) 56m. 09.8s.
6. S. Fleck (Subaru WRC) 56m. 52.6s
7. M. Gass (Subaru WRC) 57m. 12s.
8. P. Collins (Ford Escort) 58m. 54.5s.
9. D. O’Donovan (Toyota Celica) 58m. 03.4s.
10. D. Cronin (BMW M3) 58m. 03.7s.
