Guys and gals, ive pm'd Webmaster to see if we can get a sticky for the event.

If anyone has any comments, chat or pics, can we keep it together as it would be easlier.

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Got comments, no pics just yet i'm afraid.

I was lucky last night at stormont as I managed to get VIP passes.

Saw all the drivers, was talking to Marcus, Petter and Phil Mills.

Petter & Phil both signed my STI service book too!

Was a great night, lets hope the organisers do a real good job this weekend and we get rally Ireland for a few more years.

Shaun

Gronholm's crashed out, Donnelly's out mechanical failure, for those who havnt heard yet

i hear meeke has engine trouble too?

Meeke did really well last night, and held them off rightly:notworthy

My index finger is getting sore hitting refresh on website for time updates.

Get the feeling Gronholm wont be the only one out. But did i hear something on radio rally up dates about some getting back in under the SSR Rules?

yeh he could re enter tomorrow but he'd be at the back of the pile having missed 6 stages or whatever it is. meeke had a spin off too but is back in the rally, might be heading to a few of ths stages in the morning round ballinamallard

the WRC drivers are a completely different class, the closest is tim mc nulty at the min i think and he is 5 min odd behind loeb and sordo. Meeke is streets ahead of the other irish drivers too, he really has a great future in rallying....hope he does well!!

heres a few videos courtesy of Camo of GT4 fame, more to follow, just these were on the micro sd....

Petter Solberg: YouTube - WRC Ireland - Stormont Special Stage - Solberg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlGpOwxR6dU)

Sebastian Loeb: YouTube - Sebastian Loeb WRC Ireland Special Stage Stormont Citroen c4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqxlWRak6HI)

Audi Quattro Gp. B demo: YouTube - Group B Audi Quattro Special Stage WRC Ireland Stormont (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWg7dyXXr_0)

Peugeot T16 Gp. B demo: YouTube - Group B Peugeot T16 205 Rally Ireland WRC Special Stage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPN1Sw-1wHA)

Group N: YouTube - WRC Ireland - Stormont Special Stage - Gp. N (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=map9Rr3baW0)

Is this not meekes 2nd or 3rd attempt at WRC class onlt no one would sponsor him before, if he keeps it up, surely he would be approached.

Fingers crossed for the guy, would be great to follow our own drivers at WRC level

i wasnt at it but some guys at work who were said it was a bit of a let down...??

any body else have the same opinion??

TBH yes i felt the same, £28 for grandstands seats with v little view. Circuit was too close to seating and only half the track was open to spectators. Was a crowd pleaser at the end of the day.

big big crowd as you would expect...was a good evening...actual viewing was fairly limited due the shear amount of people - we spent quite a bit of time watching the screens instead. As with most super special stages, it's event promotion...i thought they done a good job and also echo ulsterscoob's comment from another thread...translink done a cracking job with the shuttle between ikea and stormont. Quite a few scoob's scattered around the ikea carpark on entry, only recognised brocks and ulsterscoob though.

Yeah was a great night but when you ended up 5 back from the railings not much to be seen screens were good though.
Spent most of the night over beside the ramp.

But at £ 10 a head for me and the kids think we seen more than those in the posh seats

The grandstands were a bit of a disappointment TBH, as Andy 00 says they were too close to the road as you couldn't see much when the cars went past and the one's in front got in the way, even when we all stood up you couldn't see much either. It got better after the WRC & JWRC & PWRC cars had finished as alot of people left and you could see more but the commentators had stopped too so I didn't know what cars were going next.

Good to see the group b cars given an outing too.

Windyboy.

Grandstands were a bit poor for viewing,would have been better getting standing tickets.I think if the grandstand was over the other side of the road and further up the hill would have been spot on.

And being told to sit down by Stephen Watson didnt help!!!!!!.

Typical Health and Safety @rseholes

Park and ride service was A+++++:thumb: Well organised and a great help.

Hopefully the event will give this country the world wide publicity that it so badly needs. Fingers crossed we will see a great weekends footage and hope that everyone is well by the last stage.

Guess what my programme planner contains ALL weekend:lol1:

Sky 410 all the way:D

Pos. No. Driver/Car Stage Time Diff Prev Diff Ldr
1 1 S. LOEB 1:33:15.9 0.0 0.0
2 2 D. SORDO 1:33:27.1 11.2 11.2
3 9 J. LATVALA 1:34:44.3 1:17.2 1:28.4
4 4 M. HIRVONEN 1:35:09.1 24.8 1:53.2
5 7 P. SOLBERG 1:35:35.1 26.0 2:19.2
6 18 G. WILKS 1:37:29.5 1:54.4 4:13.6
7 5 M. STOHL 1:37:57.8 28.3 4:41.9
8 16 M. WILSON 1:40:01.3 2:3.5 6:45.4
9 27 T. MCNULTY 1:41:11.8 1:10.5 7:55.9
10 20 G. MACHALE 1:41:15.7 3.9 7:59.8
11 34 M. HIGGINS 1:41:58.9 43.2 8:43.0
12 46 A. Araujo 1:42:54.6 55.7 9:38.7
13 54 G. POZZO 1:43:06.4 11.8 9:50.5
14 24 A. NESBITT 1:43:19.3 12.9 10:03.4
15 26 A. MACHALE 1:43:21.2 1.9 10:05.3
16 28 G. JONES 1:43:33.7 12.5 10:17.8
17 53 N. MCSHEA 1:43:38.2 4.5 10:22.3
18 25 A. MACHALE 1:43:55.1 16.9 10:39.2
19 21 A. MIKKELSEN 1:43:58.1 3.0 10:42.2
20 29 R. BREEN 1:44:11.4 13.3 10:55.5
21 39 N. AL-ATTIYAH 1:44:44.5 33.1 11:28.6
22 40 S. CAMPEDELLI 1:45:49.6 1:5.1 12:33.7
23 17 K. AL QASSIMI 1:46:03.0 13.4 12:47.1
24 32 S. JONES 1:46:04.3 1.3 12:48.4
25 30 K. BARRETT 1:46:39.0 34.7 13:23.1

The Ireland round of the World Rally Championship today proved a tough challenge with a series of accidents, one of which has almost certainly put leading driver Marcus Gronholm out of the event.

Two-time world rally champion Gronholm and his co-driver, Timo Rautiainen, were rushed to hospital hospital after their car spun out of control and hit a wall during the Lough Gill stage of this morning's event. Both were released later after receiving the all-clear but their car will be unable to continue.

Kris Meeke from Dungannon did not benefit from his experience of Irish roads. Meeke fell ten feet on Stage 7 but his car was pulled out of the ditch by spectators, allowing him to continue. Derryman Sean Donnelly was less fortunate, being forced to retire with mechanical problems.

Australian Chris Atkinson was another casualty.

"The accident happened on a very slippery right-hand bend. We were able to get going again and get the car back into service. The conditions out there are unreal."

This view was echoed by Petter Solberg: "When it's as bad as this there's no option but to drive like my grandmother."

At least six cars in total failed to complete today's course.

Gronholm's retirement puts Sebastien Loeb in pole position to win the championship overall. The Frenchman was only four points behind the Finn at the outset of the inaugural Ireland round of the rally. The 2007 event concludes next month with Rally GB in Wales.

The consensus after Day One in the northwest is that conditions are far tougher than expected. With rain forecast tomorrow, driving conditions are unlikely to improve.

Sourced from: Rally // News (http://www.rallyireland.org/news.aspx?article=181)

Some of Solberg's car on coming back into Service area at Sligo this evening.

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Damien

You sure thats not Henning Solberg and Cato Menkeruds car mate?:wonder:

Groholm and Rautiainens BP Ultimate Focus is No.3

Yeah thats defo Henning Solbergs car.

Watched the highlights there, was surprised at the amount of damage done to the Focus, for the impact it had, though suppose it was a bloody strong stone wall. Wouldnt have liked to have seen the consequences if the wall hadnt have been there. Would have been one wet car and 2 stricken passengers:eek:

Yea sorry was thinkin about Solbergs wee mishap when I read the thread. It would take a brave big hammer to bang out them dents!

Watched the highlights there, was surprised at the amount of damage done to the Focus, for the impact it had, though suppose it was a bloody strong stone wall. Wouldnt have liked to have seen the consequences if the wall hadnt have been there. Would have been one wet car and 2 stricken passengers:eek:

I know that road - You have 2 ft of concrete, 20 ft drop and 200 ft of lake. Strangely, 2 ft of concrete doesn't have that much give in it, but the 200 ft of lake will kill you far quicker. I hope Loeb loses a few places to make them all square going to GB. Can't see it though. He was taking it easy this afternoon :eek:

was to packed for the we bit they give ous to watch frm didnt really get to c much thow gd nite!!

To save anyone the hastle of lookin up-

Pos. No. Driver/Car Stage Time Diff Prev Diff Ldr
1 1 S. LOEB 2:30:35.2 0.0 0.0
2 2 D. SORDO 2:31:34.5 59.3 59.3
3 9 J. LATVALA 2:32:44.0 1:9.5 2:08.8
4 4 M. HIRVONEN 2:33:12.8 28.8 2:37.6
5 7 P. SOLBERG 2:33:28.4 15.6 2:53.2
6 18 G. WILKS 2:36:27.2 2:58.8 5:52.0
7 16 M. WILSON 2:39:58.5 3:31.3 9:23.3
8 20 G. MACHALE 2:40:42.9 44.4 10:07.7
9 21 A. MIKKELSEN 2:43:36.5 2:53.6 13:01.3
10 46 A. Araujo 2:45:04.9 1:28.4 14:29.7
11 53 N. MCSHEA 2:45:31.3 26.4 14:56.1
12 54 G. POZZO 2:45:51.8 20.5 15:16.6
13 26 A. MACHALE 2:46:33.6 41.8 15:58.4
14 66 O. SVEDLUND 2:46:41.0 7.4 16:05.8
15 84 R. CATHCART 2:47:23.2 42.2 16:48.0
16 93 J. VAN DEN HEUVEL 2:47:42.8 19.6 17:07.6
17 39 N. AL-ATTIYAH 2:48:03.6 20.8 17:28.4
18 40 S. CAMPEDELLI 2:49:43.6 1:40.0 19:08.4
19 17 K. AL QASSIMI 2:49:49.9 6.3 19:14.7
20 10 H. SOLBERG 2:50:51.8 1:1.9 20:16.6
21 48 P. MORROW 2:51:21.4 29.6 20:46.2
22 62 G. JENNINGS 2:51:29.5 8.1 20:54.3
23 49 S. VOJTECH 2:52:06.2 36.7 21:31.0
24 35 F. NUTAHARA 2:52:44.5 38.3 22:09.3
25 68 M. CURRAN 2:52:55.1 10.6 22:19.9

Quotes from SWRT.com

Driver quotes from Service E (after SS13)
17 November 2007


Chris talks to the media during service
Car number 7
Petter Solberg: “We were third fastest on SS12 so today has not been bad for us. The conditions on the first stage today were trickier than yesterday, so it has been a hard morning. We have closed on fourth, but I was just focused on my driving and not on position, and I’ll keep doing the same this afternoon. We had a cut slick BFGoodrich tyre this morning, but the rain was really hard in the last two stages of the first loop so it was not ideal. There will be lots of standing water this afternoon on the second pass so we will change to a wet weather tyre. We will just try to keep the car on the road, as you can lose the rally very quickly here.”

Car number 8
Chris Atkinson: “We had some problems getting away from the start line in SS12 and SS13, but overall this morning has not been bad for us, and the times from the first couple of stages were pretty good. The route today is not as muddy as yesterday, but with the rain they are even more slippery. I think everyone is not pushing that hard now as it is easy to make a mistake; it’s just like driving on ice as it is very difficult to feel the level of grip under the car. You feel silly driving so slowly, using throttle, brake, throttle, brake to try and feel the grip, but you only need to touch the throttle too much and the car will step sideways.”

Came over to your fair isle, and first thing to say is you've got some cracking driving roads over there, have to agree about the SS at Stormont, we had grandstand seats and the view was pants, but all in all great time was had, and hopefully you'll get the confirmation that it'll run again in '09.

Yeah, hopefully.

Overall I think the organisers did a good job, from a dramatic rally point of view it was perfect.
Great to see such a big event on home turf.

Does anyone know when the rounds in 2009 will be made public?

Shaun

Another thing, did anyone manage to view the last stage live on eurosport?

The commentator called the Mullaghmore stage (its written as it sounded) Mullamoray

Saw the last stage live yesterday on Eurosport, was quite good, nice to see a full minute and a half of each of the top 15 or so cars

Cant wait for 2009 fingers crossed !!!

Coming from Ballymena down the m3 at 5pm in the gridlocked traffic i thought it was going to be disaster when i got to the ikea park and ride. But with the security at the car park and the orginisation of the spectators and buses i was very impressed. Only disappointment was being able to view the rally itself with the cheapo ticket. Had to make do with standing in middle of the field beside beer tent and get small glimpses of the bridge and screen. At the end of the day i enjoyed the experience as there was a good atmosphere. Cant think why the FIA wouldnt want to host it here again, because of the support and organisation.
At the end of the day rallying is becoming a less and less spectator sport, as you all know who attends rallys, you spend most of your day travelling from stage to stage, getting lost trying to find the best place to watch in the shortest space of time. (or is that just me)

**** me that was bit of rambling. least i wasnt shouting.