1^ST (4) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 12.00.2

2^ND (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 12.14.6

3^RD (9) Donie O'Sullivan/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 12.21.7

4^th (2) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 12.26.1

5^th (12) Daniel & Michael Doherty (Impreza WRC) 12.29.4

6^th (10) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 12.37.8

7^th (8) Maurice Gass/James McKee (Accent WRC) 12.40.0

8^th (23) Garry Jennings/Paul Garry (Lancer N) 12.50.7

9^th (16) Dessie Keenan/Enda Sherry (Lancer N) 13.00.8

10^th (15) Aaron MacHale/Ger McMonagle (Lancer N) 13.03.5

Rally leader Derek McGarrity found the renowned jumps and bumps of the Tullyreagh Bridge stage not a great problem, but the same can’t be said of Tim McNulty in a similar Impreza WRC, who arrived at stage finish with oil pouring out of his gearbox, of which more later. McGarrity commented. "No, the big jumps I didn’t find a problem but it seemed very slippy and I had trouble stopping for the jumctions". Second placed Eugene Donnelly echoed McGarrity’s thoughts on the slippiness, and went on to say he felt his Corolla was set up just too soft for the bumpy roads. Donie O’Sullivan in 3^rd place reported no major problems and seemed happy enough. While Austin MacHale still has a little bit to go to get on to McGarrity’s pace.

That story on McNulty – he apparently smashed the gearbox casing after a big jump. The Prodrive engineers were there, had a look under the car and did not seem optimistic about his chances of keeping going. Apparently the box only holds about 4 litres of oil and there was at least half a litre on the ground where he stopped. No service for 2 stages and the Prodrive men reckoned it would possibly seize within 5 miles.

Another driver in trouble at stage finish was Glen Wilson, reporting a big problem with his Escort Maxi clutch, possibly the centre spring has popped. Anyway, he lost over a minute to his class rival Guy Woodcock.

In Group N Garry Jennings seems to be the man of the moment, Garry recording a 2^nd fastest gpN time and saying "I haven’t broken sweat yet". Aaron MacHale said he was trying hard. Colm Murphy is struggling to get used to a new type of gearbox in his gpN Impreza. Cathal Rogers felt his Lancer’s brakes and tyres "went off" during the stage. Robbie McGurk set a time of 7.54, 5s down on Jennings. Charlie Mavitty was 8.28 for that 2^nd stage, Charlie saying its still a bit early in the day for him. Keith McIvor was fast in gpn on the first stage, into the top 10, but dropped 40s to the fastest men in the category through stage 2.

More news after stage 4.

BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSONU (with thanks to Michael Patterson and Zoe Todd)

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