RALLY NEWS NO.4       Buncrana/Service/Sunday 5.30           www.rallynews.net
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4 Mouldy Hill
1st (2) Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza WRC) 37.26
2nd (8) Andrew Stewart/Fabian McShane (Lancer N) 38.15
3rd (5) James Gillen/Victor Carruthers (Esc.Cos) 38.28
4th (10) Seamus Donnelly/Paul Garry (Escort) 39.24
5th (29) Stuart Darcy/Barry Goodman (Lancer N) 39.28
6th (14) Stephen Harris/Damien Crawford (Lancer N) 39.41
     (16) Paul Gallagher/Karl Reid (Corolla) 39.41
8th (163) Angus Hunter/Joe Friel (Lancer N) 39.55
9th (21) Damien Gallagher/Mac Walsh (Escort) 40.01
** No times available yet for Daniel Conaghan. Daniel is shown well up the leaderboard after stage 3. In fact the above leaderboard is very much an interim/provisional effort.

Niall Maguire came through stage 4 first on the road, looking very confident indeed, his lead now fairly convincing, and said "It went well but the roads are very slippy now, there's a lot of mud getting dragged out on the road".  As Niall sat and talked there were the first spits of rain, the early warning of some bad weather to come, with 2 stages remaining up the Inishowen Peninsula.  We did expect Ivan Stewart's Escort Cosworth to appear after the Maguire Subaru, but there was no sign of the Donegal man at the finish line. Instead it was Andrew Stewart who came sailing down the road in his group N Lancer, and reported "Going very well, very good".  Andrew set 2nd fastest time for the stage.  James Gillen was next up, co-driver Victor Carruthers saying "We seemed to be driving very hard in there, but it's not reflected in the time. We're a bit disappointed".  When asked about the engine which had been overheating and ran out of water after stage 3, Victor went on "It seems OK now. We repaired a hose at service". 

Seamus Donnelly in 4th place reports no real problems, although he finished stage 3 with the rear tyres of his Escort through to the wire. While Stuart Darcy in 5th was like a dog with two tails, as he said "The car's great, I'm able to throw it about a bit, it's good to get some stage miles done".  This is Billy Coleman Award winner Stuart's first time in a gpN car, and although he wasn't as fast as Andrew Stewart through stage 4, he wasn't a mile away either, and was a fair bit faster, 14s, than Angus Hunter…and 11s up on Stephen Harris.  Harris felt he was being a small bit careful - he had had the brakes bled at service and he was testing the pedal a few times through the stage. 

Another lead driver who did not appear at the end of that 4th stage was Norman Armstrong - his Escort reportedly conked out at the hairpin.  Damien Gallagher is staying well in the hunt, although his Escort was suffering a bit of a misfire in that 4th stage.  Enda Keenan is just outside the above leaderboard on a total of 41.04. Enda was delayed on the first run through the stage, scraping past Martin Doherty's stricken Escort, and then on that run at Mouldy Hill he was delayed by sheep on the road.  Eamonn Harvey is still going well, despite having scraped the rear of the Raymond Mason hired Subaru.  BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON