MacHale in international rally of Wales.
Ireland’s Austin MacHale and co-driver, Brian Murphy (Ford Focus WRC) are beginning today’s final leg of the International Rally of Wales in third place with Northern Ireland pair Kris Meeke/Chris Patterson ((Corsa) in seventh spot and leading the Super 1600 category.
The rally, the second round of the Pirelli British Championship, is being led by David Higgins (Hyundai Accent WRC), who is 16.1 seconds ahead of the Subaru WRC of defending champion, Jonny Milner, with MacHale some 30 seconds adrift in third.
MacHale actually set the quickest time on the second stage and was within the top three on most of the stages until the fifth stage where he was off the road at the first junction, the five times Irish Tarmac champion reckoning the dust from Milner’s Subaru was a contributing factor.
Meeke is well in control in the S1600 category and eased off on yesterday’s final stage.
David Higgins/Craig Thorley (Hyundai Accent WRC) 1h. 04m. 29.7s.
Jonny Milner/Nicky Beech (Subaru WRC) 1h. 04m. 45.8s.
Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1h. 05m. 16.6s.
Paul Bird/Andrew Bargery (Focus WRC) 1h. 05m. 48.4s.
Matthew Wilson/Scott Martin (Focus WRC) 1h. 06m. 05.9s.
Steve Perez/Daniel Barritt (Focus WRC) 1h. 07m. 07.4s.
Kris Meeke/Chris Patterson (Opel Corsa) 1h. 07m. 24.6s
Meanwhile, Irish co-driver, Rory Kennedy from Letterkenny is partnering Alister Ginley to tenth place in the Cyprus Rally that ends today.
Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot 307) extended his advantage through yesterday’s stages and is 22.9 seconds ahead of the Citroen of Sebastien Loeb with Ford’s Markko Martin up to third – 10.7 seconds adrift of Loeb.
1. M Gronholm/T Rautiainen (Peugeot 307) 3h. 33m. 02.0s.
2. S. Loeb/D Elena (Citroen Xsara) 3h. 33m. 24.9s.
3. M Martin/M Park (Ford Focus) 3h. 33m. 35.6s.
