1^st (1) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 1.07.01

2^nd (5) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.07.02

3^rd (4) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.08.22

4^th (11) Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 1.09.07

5^th (2) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.09.50

6^th (14) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 1.09.58

7^th (9) Paul Harris/John McCafferty (Impreza WRC) 1.10.34

8^th (26) Maurice Gass/James McKee (Impreza WRC) 1.12.45

9^th (17) Seamus Leonard/Gerry McVeigh (Impreza N) 1.13.35

10^th (59) Cahal Rogers/Paul McLaughlin (Lancer N) 1.13.57

There were major dramas on the Knockalla stage. Eugene Donnelly had a problem with his Corolla and lost the lead to Andrew Nesbitt. Young Matthew Wilson has crashed his Focus WRC out of the rally. Early Group N leader Seamus Heron has stopped in the stage, and Aaron MacHale was in a ditch for 3 minutes and lost his leaderboard place.

Eugene Donnelly looked almost bewildered when he arrived in here to service and jumped straight out of the Corolla to start looking all round the back axle. As he studied he said. "We had umpteen misdemeanours, 3 overshoots and 2 stalls, there’s something wrong at the back end here, I don’t know whether it’s a hub or something to do with the axle. It started to happen after heavy braking and we did clip a bank in stage 11. I was too adventurous with my tyre choice into the bargain." Apart from the fact that Eugene had his problems, Andrew Nesbitt turned in a stunning time, and that was despite being on intermediate tyres for the bone dry roads. Andrew obviously had wrong information as to the weather conditions up Fanad Head, but then having said that, several other drivers including Derek McGarrity weren’t quite right either. Derek was being a man for all seasons with slicks on the front and intermediates on the back. Tim McNulty was on too soft a tyre and changed the fronts to the backs between Fanad and Knockalla.

That accident of Matthew Wilson sounds really scary. Apparently the Focus WRC crashed over rocks, 50 feet down on to the beach at Scraggy Bay. Matthew and co driver Scott Martin are reported to be OK. Maurice Gass was next along and he stopped at the radio point to report the accident. Stephen Finlay was over-flying and he has landed on the beach to see if he could help. Reportedly the tide is on the way in and the Focus is on the sand. Aaron MacHale’s accident caused no damage, and if the spectators had helped the Lancer would have been on its way in 30s, but it took Aaron and co driver Ger 3 minutes to get going. Further stories include – Colm Murphy in transmission trouble. Paul Harris’ Impreza WRC careered down a slip road at a junction costing about 15s, also up on 2 wheels at a chicane and nearly on to its roof. Cahal Rogers, now into the top 10, finished Knockalla with his Lancer almost out of fuel. Dessie Keenan is now coming into the gpN picture, just 10s behind Cahal, the latter not hanging about either.

John Dalton still leads the National category. Paul Gallagher is up to 2^nd despite smashing a large lump out of the rear right rim on Knockalla, happily the tyre didn’t deflate. Damian Gallagher is 3^rd, his Escort suffering a lot of damage after the big Knockalla jump. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net