1^st (4) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.52.09.3

2^nd (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.52.33.9

3^rd (9) Donie O'Sullivan/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 1.54.11.6

4^th (2) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.55.08.1

5^th (12) Daniel & Michael Doherty (Impreza WRC) 1.55.51.9

6^th (23) Garry Jennings/Paul Garry (Lancer N) 2.00.11.6

7^th (16) Dessie Keenan/Enda Sherry (Lancer N) 2.00.36.2

8^th (15) Aaron MacHale/Ger McMonagle (Lancer N) 2.02.11.1

9^th (19) Cathal Rogers/Sean McLaughlin (Lancer N) 2.06.19.2

10^th (33) Willie Fannin/Mike Courtney (Impreza N) 2.06.39.0

11^th (25) Kevin Watson/Kevin Flanagan (Lancer N) 2.07.48.4

12^th (17) Guy Woodcock/Phil Harrison (Escort Maxi) 2.08.53.7

Following a hard day’s rallying the gap between Derek McGarrity and Eugene Donnelly for the lead of this Circuit of Ireland is 24 seconds. That is not so far away from what it was at the start of the day. Eugene did push the gap up to around the 30s mark, and was faster than McGarrity through stages 14 and 15, but then on stage 16 McGarrity was 8s faster than the Envirocare Corolla. A heavy burst of rain caught all the drivers on the hop in stage 15, Skelpy. Most of the top drivers were on dry weather tyres which made life interesting indeed for them. Austin MacHale got a puncture in stage 16 and dropped a minute, so he is well behind Donie O’Sullivan, of which more later.

Derek McGarrity commented here at service. "We were 100 per cent wrong in our tyre choice, it was like an autocross on shiny tar." Co driver Dermot O’Gorman said. "It was brutal, there were 3 or 4 places we were very sideways, thought we were never coming back, horrific". Derek went on to say "We changed the front struts before those 3 stages but the rattle in the suspension is still there, we think it might be a track control arm, we’ll change those now. At one point in Sloughan Glen we jumped the car so hard the spare wheels and jack came out of the straps and they were banging about in the boot, which was quite worrying". Eugene Donnelly just shrugged when he saw Derek’s time for the last stage, and said "I was over cautious, far too cautious, I thought Derek would have backed off in the conditions. But I’m happy enough, a lot of it is down to tyre choice".

Austin MacHale said about his puncture. "It was about 2 miles into the stage I felt the car under steering on a left hander. I was on the rim for the last 4 miles, I definitely didn’t hit anything". Austin thinks he lost well over a minute, but in fact our study of the times shows it to be just about a minute. Donie O’Sullivan seemed to go really well in the rain, his Bewleys Hotels/Staircrete backed Focus WRC very impressive in the wet. Donie reported "We were flying away in the rain, and enjoying the battle with Austin, squeezing away at him. I was sorry for him when he got the puncture. Its strange, my car seems way better in the rain". Daniel Doherty in 5^th reported. "A day from hell, electrical gremlins are driving us mad, the car’s revving on its own. We’ve been nearly off the road, the confidence is shot!"

Garry Jennings turned in a brilliant stage 15 time in the rain to increase his Group N lead over Dessie Keenan. Aaron MacHale definitely lost ground in the rain. Cathal Rogers speeded up to come into the top 10 ahead of Willie Fannin. Eoin Doyle withdrew from the rally following an incident at the Sloughan Glen stage. Colm Murphy’s GpN Impreza got stuck at an acute junction, not quite sure what the problem was. Guy Woodcock is still the highest placed 2 wheel drive car, his Escort Maxi was damaged when Cathal Rogers squeezed by. Dermot Hanafin is still losing time with his Subaru ECU problem. Andrew Bushe’s 106 broke down in a stage, Andrew had a spare fuel pump relay in the car and was able to replace it and get going with a 2 minute time loss. Cumiskey in the 206 Peugeot was 2^nd in Bushe’s class, but he lost 4 mins. With an off road excursion, so we think Andrew is back in the lead from Jonathan McDaid.

Jaye Jordan was leading the National Rally after stage 13, his Escort Cosworth 58s ahead of Seamus O’Connell’s Escort with Gary Keenan 3^rd. Keith McQuillan/Keith Black retired their Honda Civic Type R from 16^th overall and leading the class in the main Circuit, because of gearbox trouble. Alyn Spiers retired his Suzuki with engine trouble. More news in the morning. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net