RALLY NEWS NO.4        Service In..Sunday 3 pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4

1st (1) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Subaru WRC) 31.51

2nd (3) Paul Harris/Eugene O'Donnell (Subaru Impreza) 32.04

3rd (175) George Cullen/Dermot O'Gorman (Subaru Impreza) 33.04

4th (12) Jim Harrison/Mike Gibson (Escort Cos) 33.48

5th (17) James Gillen/Shane O'Neill (Escort) 33.52

6th (4) Ray Breen/John Purcell (Subaru Impreza) 34.27

7th (16) Rory O'Connor/Francis Kenny (Escort Cos) 34.31

8th (29) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (BMW) 34.38

9th (20) Glen Allen/Adrian Johnston (Escort) 35.07

10th (14) Joe McGurk/Arthur Kierans (Celica) 35.09

Some times just outside the leaderboard...Noel McCarrick 35.37: Tim McNulty 35.40. Mick McArdle 36.54: Michael Shaw 36.17: Joe McHugh 35.27: Mac McKenna 35.18: Anthony O'Halloran 36.27: Mervyn Wedlock 35.56: Paul Gallagher 36.08.

Andrew Nesbitt moved into the lead of this Downhill Hotel backed Ballina Rally on stage 3 when Paul Harris' Subaru suffered a slow puncture. Donegal man Paul told us "I didn't even know I had a puncture, I just started to back off and didn't really know why."  Andrew Nesbitt commented "That was a bit better, we've made a few adjustments to the suspension and she's riding the bumps a better, although they were a different type of stages from the first two".  Third placed George Cullen was well down in the dumps when he arrived into service - he reckons that his Impreza is going to go very little further as the clutch is starting to give trouble after the gearbox was rebuilt this morning.  Ray Breen is a lot more comfortable in his Subaru and said "The new car's beautiful".

Jim Harrison was also a bit more cheerful as he becomes more and more accustomed to the active transmission in his Escort Cosworth. Noel McCarrick dropped a few seconds in stage 3 when he caught up with the struggling Dominic Loughran - the Loughran Sierra Cosworth had a smashed rear wheel bearing. Joe McHugh has speeded up dramatically, and unofficially now leads group N. Denis Cronin's BMW has had a small problem with fouling up the spark plugs. Glen Allen is going more or less flat out now and has moved into the class 11A lead in his Mk2 Escort, Mac McKenna's Peugeot suffered a misfire ins tage 4 possibly due to distributor trouble. Car 42 Philip Shaw had been going very well in cl.11A, possibly leading, but he has disappeared!  James & Ann Foley have retired their Honda with head gasket trouble. Shane Briscoe has had his Honda on the roof and has retired. John Spain/PeterEgan non started their Manta when the diff blew in testing last night, broken axle. An interested observer on the rally is Pascal Drennan who is the Ireland agent for the special Carless rally fuel and also has leaded fuel in stock for older cars. Pascal's tel.number for further info is 086 2529629.  Charlie Beatty is now 26s ahead of Paul Gallagher in the cl.10 race - Gallagher is clawing back some time lost on a first stage spin..more later..BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON