SS5: Greer on the Verge of Victory
- Updated: 19 June 2021
SS5: Jonny Greer finished stage five with a worried look on his face. He caught another competitor on the stage and couldn’t get past…but it quickly transpired that it didn’t matter. He and navigator Kirsty Riddick still managed to set fastest time and extended their lead to 25.8 seconds over Derek McGarrity and Paddy Robinson. With one stage remaining, Greer has one hand on the McGrady Insurance Stages trophy.
In second position, Derek McGarrity was much happier. The stage has been reversed for the final two tests – a change that better suits his Focus WRC. Third placed Stephen Wright and Liam Moynihan were faster than McGarrity through the test but nine seconds stand between the two crews.
“I didn’t feel like we were as fast as we were on the last stage,” Wright said, “but we’ll see what the time is like.”
Phillip Allen and Ian Dickson continue to hold a comfortable fourth but a spun and a stall has thwarted their challenge for third. Aaron McLaughlin and Darren Curran are fifth while Stuart Biggerstaff and Chris Nelson have nipped into sixth ahead of Peadar Hurson and Damien Connolly.
“Now we’re suckin’ diesel!” Biggerstaff laughed at the stage end. “We’ve stiffened the car up and it’s working really well.”
There were no more movements to the top 10 with Niall Henry and Damien Duffin continuing to hold eighth ahead of Kieron and Amy Graffin while top 2WD, Barry Morris and Dylan Doonan, are 10th.
Further down the order, Sean Devine reported that his car stopped during the stage and refused to restart, losing some precious seconds. Clive Kilpatrick lost power virtually within sight of the finish line and Paul Britton lost some time behind another competitor.
James Kennedy’s challenge has faded with a 50 second penalty for being late out of service earlier in the day. Paul McKenna had to pull off the track with some technical gremlins, briefly causing a stage stoppage before he was able to coast back into service.
A number of other cars are stopped at the side of the track including Roger Kennedy and Wendy Blackledge. Seamus Goodfellow and Joel McFarland also pulled over briefly but their Civic appears to be back to full health and are on their way again.
Latest results are available from rallyscore.net. Stage five is almost complete and the final stage will be getting underway soon.
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