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1^st (4) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 23.16.0

2^nd (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 23.35.4

3^rd (9) Donie O'Sullivan/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 23.49.9

4^th (2) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 23.56.5

5^th (12) Daniel & Michael Doherty (Impreza WRC) 24.07.7

6^th (23) Garry Jennings/Paul Garry (Lancer N) 25.05.1

7^th (16) Dessie Keenan/Enda Sherry (Lancer N) 25.06.0

8^th (15) Aaron MacHale/Ger McMonagle (Lancer N) 25.19.7

9^th (18) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Lancer N) 25.23.0

10^th (24) Robbie McGurk/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 25.26.7

Derek McGarrity set fastest times on all the stages so far, while Eugene Donnelly was just 1s slower than McGarrity through stage 4 and Donie O’Sullivan was just a hair’s breadth outside that again. Austin MacHale was almost 4s slower than Donie. McGarrity commented "I’m glad to be out of that last stage, I don’t there’s a tyre ideally suited for it, but the Pirellis worked well. It was so slippy". Eugene Donnelly said after stage 2 that he felt the car was set up too soft, but when he arrived here after stage 4 the Maghera man felt he had been wrong in his diagnosis, a change of tyres has transformed the car and he is very happy. Third placed Donie O’Sullivan clipped a rock with a front wheel on stage 3 and lost a few seconds, but the incident happened only a few miles from the end of the stage, and the time loss was not disastrous.

Austin MacHale in 4^th place spoke of an overshoot in stage 3, and perhaps trying just too hard, but reasonably happy, no problems with the car. Austin is still rueing making a bit of a mess of the first stage. At the heels of the hunt, the big Dubliner could still joke "Maybe I’m getting too old for it!" Daniel Doherty in 5^th reckons he is still very rusty, but interestingly he is not a mile away from the top men in front. As suspected Tim McNulty does not appear to have made it here to service after damaging his Impreza gearbox on a stage 2 jump. Maurice Gass has fallen off the leaderboard, his Hyundai suffering a severe misfire and lack of power through stage 4, and part of stage 3. Paddy White’s Impreza WRC is still suffering from a suspect clutch and the Lough Allen Hotel man is having to coax the car away from stage starts and not use the launch control.

In Group N things are really hotting up, with Dessie Keenan less than a second behind Garry Jennings and indeed there are now 4 Group N cars in the top 10. Garry lost some time in stage 4 when on a square left corner the interior mirror fell off the roof of his car and dropped down around his feet somewhere, causing the Ballinamallard man some moments of anguish. Dessie Keenan reported stage 4 to be so slilppy the Lancer felt like a Mk2 Escorts it was so sideways. Colm Murphy is very much keeping his brain in gear, not too worried about the cars in front as yet, thinking of the Pirelli Tarmac Championship. Cathal Rogers says he is just not used to this gpN Lancer and feels he is never in the right gear. More news later. BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net